Different Types of Hunger
by MiddleTownDreams
Summary: There are different ways you can feel hunger, there are different types of hunger. You can hunger for food, comfort, safety, killing, blood, or death. Zoro and Sanji are in the Hunger Games, when they're forced kill or be killed what will happen? Hunger Games Zosan AU
1. The Reaping

A/N: So this is my first fanfiction on this site. I haven't written anything in a while and thought that this would be a fun fic to write, and I saw someone asking for zosan Hunger Games on tumblr. I'm hoping to update every week or so! Enjoy! (and please be kind)

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Chapter 1

The Reaping

The tall green haired teen glowered at the forest before him. The wind ruffled through the short mossy locks and danced with his earrings as he stared at the trees, his fingers playing with the scabbards of his three swords, Wadō Ichimonji, Sandai Kitetsu and Shuusui. Legally, he was only allowed to carry one, with a permit. But his district was pretty relaxed on the rules, being the furthest from the World Government base in Impel Down, hardly any marines were in the district and none dared to take the extra two away from the menacing swordsman. He never gave them an excuse either, always kept them at his side and only drew one in public. Zoro growled again as he searched the trees, looking for something to kill. He hunted regularly in these woods, bringing back food for his family, sometimes selling extra on the underground market. He scanned the trees again, watching the small birds flit from branch to branch. His eyes spotted a quick flash and his movement stilled. He slowed his breath and watched as the doe walked further into his view. She lifted her head slightly, almost testing the air, her light fur covered ears flicking softly. He lowered his stance, lifting his katana lightly out of the scabbard, only one was needed. He crept forward, silent on the forest floor. Suddenly a rock was whistling through the air, smacking the tree next to the doe. Zoro snarled and lunged as the doe raced away, but only caught empty air.

"Usopp" he growled at the laughing sniper. The teen stood in a tree, his black curly hair held back by a hair net. Next to him on the branch sat Luffy, his pinky in his nose and his ever present straw hat lopsided on his tangle of black hair.

"What would you have done with it?" Usopp asked, pulling another rock out from his bag, "there's marines all over the place, you'd be caught for sure"

Zoro glowered at him, he was right of course. Hunting outside, hell even being outside the district was illegal. The long nosed teen crossed his arms smugly, it wasn't often he could say something to Zoro without being pummelled

"Usopp, it would have been tasty though." Luffy whined, pouting at the thought of lost meat.

"You would think dirt was tasty if it was handed to you on a plate." Usopp said, shifting through his bag for more ammo.

"Ne, Zoro, are you excited for today?" Luffy asked, his beaming face smiling down childishly at him. Zoro sighed, shaking his head. "Why would I be excited about a possible death sentence?"

"It would be fun!" There's lots of guys to fight! Strong guys!" Luffy exclaimed, swinging his legs back and forth.

"Why haven't you ever volunteered then?" Usopp asked, and Luffy's smile instantly disappeared. He looked away as he pouted, crossing his arms. "Ace won't let me. He says if I do he won't give me meat EVER again."

Usopp snorted, "I would volunteer in a second, the great Usopp is scared of nothing! Not even starving would stop the great captain Usopp from winning! Did I ever tell you about the time I took on 500 marines with just a tree branch in my hand?"

Luffy's eyes were wide with amazement, and Zoro snorted, and then froze as the sounds of a motor reached his ears. Usopp squeaked and fell from his perch on the branch, scuttling under a bush after he hit the ground. Even Luffy stilled. They watched in silence as the aircraft flew over their heads, heading towards the district. They stood, not breathing minutes after it had passed.

"Shit" Zoro growled, staring after the thing. He hated this day. Everyone did.

"We should get back." Usopp muttered, crawling out from under the bush, picking up a rock. He stood, tossing it lightly in his palm. "It's gonna start soon."

Zoro's expression darkened further, and he nodded. Together the three exited the trees, Usopp waving as he and Luffy ran towards the split in the fence. He turned away to walk back to the trees when Luffy's voice stopped him.

"Oh! Zoro!" The green haired teen looked back and saw his friend running after him.

"Here" Luffy panted, grinning as he slapped something into Zoro's palm. Zoro glanced at it, then back to the already receding back of his best friend.

"Shishishi, good luck!" Luffy called over his shoulder as he ran to join Usopp. Zoro watched him go. Luffy and Usopp had been his best friends for a while, he and Luffy had known each other since they were young, and the long nosed sniper had run into them when they were hunting a few years ago. Usopp had been hiding from a bully who had chased him to the fence. He had jumped it, then was too scared to go back over. Luffy and Zoro helped him back over, feeling sorry for the scrawny kid, and then couldn't get rid of him. No matter where they went, the long nosed kid followed them, his new "best friends". Though Zoro knew he had been using them as a shield against the kids who harassed him. Who wanted to screw with the ever scowling kid who carried around actual swords? And though he didn't look like much, Luffy was terrifying when you made him mad. Eventually, Usopp ended up actually become their friend, and they met whenever they could to hunt and provide for all of their families. Mostly for Luffy though, since he and his brother both had freakishly large appetites.

Zoro sighed, and shot a glance at the fence then turned to his swords. With all the extra marines, he couldn't carry them all around. He was limited to his permitted one. He stroked the hilts and scabbards softly, quietly saying goodbye. There was no question as to which one he was taking. The only problem was actually leaving the other two behind. The next time he came to find them they probably would have moved. He pulled Kitetsu and Shuusui off of his haramaki. Looking at them one last time, he finally slide them into the old tree trunk he, Luffy and Usopp used to hide their things in when they entered and left the forest. He squared his shoulders and walked to the fence.

zzzzz

"ZORO!" Chopper yelled as he walked through the door. Zoro smiled as his younger brother threw himself at the tall man. He caught him easily, ruffling the younger boy's curly brown hair.

"Where were you?" His elder sister Robin asked, nodding at him from behind her book.

"Out" Zoro replied, following Chopper as he dragged him further into the room. She shook her head slightly at him before standing up and walking to the small kitchen.

"What's that?" Chopper asked suddenly, stopping in the middle of the small living room. Zoro nodded to Franky, Robin's husband before responding to Chopper.

"What's what?" He asked, squatting down to the kid's height.

"That thing in your hand!" Chopper said pointing. Zoro looked, it was the thing Luffy gave him. He studied it closely, a smile growing across his face as he shook his head. It was a small gold pin, a Jolly Roger, like one on a pirate flag, but it had a straw hat. Where the hell did he get this?

"It's a pin" Zoro said, beckoning Chopper closer. He reached out and pinned it to his little brother's shirt. Chopper squealed excitedly, holding his shirt out from his body to look at the gold object.

"It's like Luffy!" He squeaked before running of to show Robin. Zoro watched him, and as soon as he left the room his smile slipped. He let out an aggravated sigh, sliding a hand over his face, stopping at his forehead. He was so young, so innocent, and now he had to go through the hellish experience of a reaping. The reaping happened every year. Every fucking year, kids 12 to 18 would stand in the town square and pray their name wouldn't be called. Their parents would stand around the square, circling the rows of children, praying their kid wouldn't be picked. Hoping they wouldn't be killed in the hunger games. The games were held every year. They had started years ago, after an uprising against the World Government. Ever since then, the World Government punished them, and made sure the idea of another uprising would meet surface, by taking away and killing their children. And now Chopper had the possibility of being one of those children. Zoro's hand tightened over his face in anger.

"He won't be chosen." The soft deep voice came from the corner. Zoro looked up, he had forgotten his brother-in-law was in the room. Frank smiled at him reassuringly, "he'll be fine, now I suggest you go clean up, unless you want your sister to do it for you." He nodded at the next room and Zoro quickly stood up, his smile returning as he nodded at the blue haired man as he left the room, "thanks"

He quickly washed, scrubbing his skin clean of any dirt. When he reached the small bedroom he shared with Chopper he found an outfit laid out on the bed already. Robin. He looked over it carefully. It was probably the only unstained shirt he owned. And surprisingly it was white. When he had dressed he looked into the dirty cracked mirror on the wall. Much nicer than his usual clothes. Almost decent. He reached over the bed and grabbed his black bandana, tying it over his bicep. Robin would ask him to take it off, but there's no way in hell he was going anywhere without it. He slide Wadō into her place at his waist and adjusted his haramaki. He turned to the side, studying his look. His three gold earrings clinked and chimed in his ear. He lifted a hand to finger them. They had belonged to his mother, and she had given them to him shortly before her death. He had tried to sell them once, for food money. He had brought the money home, only to be greeted with a dark stare from Robin. The next day he had found them on the kitchen table, in front of Robin, who only gave him a sinister smile. He never tried selling them again. Once he was ready he walked into the living room, where chopper stood with Robin and Franky.

"Bandana?" Robin asked, looking at it.

"It stays" Zoro said. Robin sighed, but gave a smile to her brother.

"Zoro..." Chopper's voice was almost unheard, "what if I get picked? What if YOU get picked?" He sniffled, rubbing at his eyes and nose. Zoro exchanged a look with Robin before bending down.

"You won't be picked, it's your first year, your name is only on there once." Zoro smiled reassuringly, parting the young boy on the shoulder. Chopper looked up at him with teary eyes, "but your name is in there so many times... What if you get picked?"

Zoro's smile tightened. His name was in the drawing 40 times this year. You had more entries every year you we're legible for the reaping. At 12 you had one, 13 you had 2 and so on. Regularly, Zoro would have had 5, but families were promised barely a year's supply of basic food supplies for one person for every extra entry.

"I won't be picked, I'm lucky remember?" Zoro forced his smile to widen again, and then ruffled his little brothers hair, "you need to get a haircut or something, it looks like you have horns little reindeer."

Chopper giggled and swatted at his hand before grabbing it in his own and walking with him towards the door.

"When we get back will you play doctor with me?" He asked hopefully as they walked through the door.

"You bet." Zoro grinned, swinging his arm, almost lifting his laughing brother off the ground.

zzzzz

They left Robin and Franky in the crowd around the square. Zoro led Chopper heavy heartedly into the lines to sign in. Just another stupid way for the fucking World Government to keep tabs on the population. Zoro scowled at the woman smiling brightly behind the desk. Her smile dimmed considerably and she shoved papers at him to sign. After he had finished, he led Chopper to the roped off area he would be standing in for the reaping. He went to stand quietly among the other wet eyed twelve year olds and Zoro felt the urge to grab his little brother and run.

He forced himself to walk away, to where the rest of the seventeen year olds would be standing. Luffy and Usopp stood ahead of him, he could see their heads above the crowd. He stood still as more and more people filed into the square. No one looked at each other, everyone was too worried about what would happen next. All attention was on the set up in front of the justice building, the speakers, microphone and podium, screen and the two large glass bowls. He glared at the one on the boy's side, wishing he could run up and rip choppers name from the bowl so he didn't have even the slightest chance of being called. But he was over reacting. He forced himself to take a deep breath.

The clock struck one and the square fell silent as Mayor Smoker stood in front of the crowd and read from a sheet of paper. Zoro couldn't understand why he needed the paper, it was the same damn thing every year, even he had it memorized. All the same old shit about the history of the New World, how it was the result of a ruined place called the Grand Line. The World Government and thirteen districts were established. Then the Dark Days, the uprising led by the resistance leader Gol D Roger. Twelve of the districts were defeated and the thirteenth, Gold Rogers district, was destroyed.

As a reminder of the Dark Days, the Hunger Games was created. Two tributes, one boy and one girl, would be called from each of the districts to go to the base at Impel Down and be imprisoned to fight to the death in an arena controlled by the Capitol. Last one standing wins.

Zoro gritted his teeth. He felt so weak. He was powerless, the World Governments plaything. He and everyone else in the district, hell in all the districts, were at their mercy.

What was even worse was it was treated as some big event everyone needed to celebrate. It was a big sporting event to pit the districts against one another. Every district hoped one of their tributes would win, as everyone would get prizes, grain, oil and even sugar, while the others districts starved.

As Smoker finishes the speech he read off the victors of the district. There were only two. The only one alive was Shanks, a drunk who was constantly joking and partying. He only had one arm, Zoro knew it had something to do with Luffy, but other than that, the guy seemed to do nothing.

Shanks staggers onstage, hugging the weird transvestite from the World Government, Ivankov. The Okama giggled, swatting at Shanks. Smoker just looked embarrassed. Of course, this had to be broadcasted live. So everyone in other districts would see the drunken tribute of the district. He sighed and sat back down. Ivankov stood, walking up to the podium.

"Happy Hunger Games! May the odds be ever in you favour!" Ivankov yelled into the microphone as the crowd shifted uncomfortably. It was always like this when the okama came up to speak, but then again, the man/woman wasn't exactly properly dressed. In some kind of man-kini, his Afro of purple-blue curls was at an insane height. His lips were purple and his eyes were covered in blue eye shadow with thick mascara. Zoro could see it from where he stood in the back. The okama started talking about honour and some shit about being the pride of the district. Finally the okama reached for a glass bowl, then halfway through the motion changed his mind.

"Let's switch it up shall we? Let's have a handsome man drawn first" he reached into the glass bowl holding the boys names. It seemed to take eternity for the okama queen to unfurl the paper. Zoro could feel the familiar uneasy sensation curl around his stomach.

Not chopper. Not me. Not chopper. Not me. He chanted in his head. Oh god he hoped it wasn't Chopper.

"Roronoa-" shit

The people around Zoro turned to stare at him, but Zoro didn't pay them any mind. His eyes flicked to Robin and Franky, who were standing in shock, to Chopper who stared back in fear. What had happened to his promise? Zoro felt like shit, he had lied, one of them was drawn.

"Chopper" the transvestite finished and Zoro's world crashed.

"Chopper" he repeated numbly. Time slowed as he heard Franky wail and Robin's cry of outrage. He heard Usopp and Luffy yelling as well. But over it all he heard his little brother screaming.

"Zoro!"

That one word was all it took for him to remember how to breathe. The green haired teen lunged into action, running out of his area. Following the marines that were leading his little brother down the aisle.

"Stop!" Marines surrounded him, but he knocked them over, "Chopper!"

The little boy turned his head and his tear soaked eyes met Zoro's. "Chopper!" Zoro yelled again, staring right back, fighting against the marines.

"I volunteer"

All movement ceased at the shout, Zoro wasn't even sure it was his, but he could feel the strain on his vocal cords, and then the second strangle cry left his lips. "I volunteer"

The marines stepped back from him and he straightened himself up. Looking up, calmer than before, he met the Okama's eyes.

"I volunteer as tribute."

A collective gasp went through the crowd at those words. No one volunteered. Especially not from this district. They hadn't had a volunteer in decades.

"Zoro!" Chopper sobbed, wrenching free of the marine that held him, the man made to grab his arm again, but a death glare from Zoro stopped him. Zoro knelt to the ground and caught Chopper as he ran and stumbled into his arms, "no Zoro! No! You can't"

He choked on his sobs. Zoro looked up from his brother and nodded at Usopp and Luffy. Solemnly they came and took Chopper from his arms.

"No! Zoro! You can't go! I won't let you." Chopper screamed, kicking and biting at the hands pulling him away. His tiny fists grabbed Zoro's shirt. Zoro could hear the crowd around them sniffling and murmuring sadly was they watched the scene.

"Let go little reindeer, I'll be fine." Zoro gave his brother smile before pulling him close one last time. Chopper relaxed in his arms and he used the opportunity to push him towards Luffy and Usopp, straightening up, out of his grasp.

"No!" Chopper howled in anguish. Zoro started walking to the stage, shaking off the hands of the marines. His step was confident, but he faltered when he heard the loud cry of pain. He stopped, forcing himself to keep going. To not turn around and go to Chopper. He heard more sobs adding to Choppers. He gritted his teeth and made his way up to the stage. He went and stood behind the bowl holding the boys names, staring out into the crowd. His eyes found his family, Franky and Robin clutching each other, the large man trying to hold back the waterfall of tears as he held his sobbing wife against his chest. Luffy and Usopp held a still screaming Chopper back, staring up at the stage sadly. Well, Usopp looked sad, Luffy looked jealous. The rest of the crowd was sniffling and wiping at tears. No doubt Chopper had caused them all to feel sorry for him. With others it was probably tears of relief, their child wasn't chosen.

"Vhat's your name cutie?" Iva asked, setting a manicured hand on Zoro's shoulder.

"Roronoa Zoro" He growled.

"I'm sorry darling, I didn't quite catch that." The okama drawled.

"Zoro. Roronoa Zoro." His voice boomed loudly through the microphone that had been held up to his face. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared out at the crowd.

"Roronoa eh? I bet that vas your brother. Wanted some glory for yourself?" The okama stopped and swallowed quickly when Zoro's head snapped in his direction, shoot a glare.

"Give it up for our newvest tribute" he yelled, looking at the crowd expectantly.

No one clapped. He expected that. No one clapped in this district when a tribute was chosen. Why would you clap when someone you knew, someone you were friends with was being sent off to be killed for entertainment? He stood as still as a statue, absorbing the fact that he was the one being sent off to die. He closed his eyes, furrowing his brow. He was going to the Hunger Games. He opened his eyes again and stared at the crowd. Their silence spoke volumes. We don't agree with this, it said. This is wrong.

Then, it happened. Completely unexpected. Zoro felt his jaw go slack. Not a lot of people really liked him, but it seemed like everyone respected what he had done for Chopper. A member of the crowd turned his back to the stage and slowly lifted his left arm, hand in a fist. It was a chain reaction. One after another every one turned, lifting their left fist above their head. It was a sign of friendship, and respect in the district. If you drew an x on the arm, it meant loyalty and was a sign of close friendship you only showed to your nakama. It was used rarely. Only to show support of someone. The last time he had seen it was a funeral. It meant thank you, respect, friendship, and goodbye to nakama or loved one.

Zoro stood in shock. His whole district respected him, and was sending him off the way they would a family member. He felt his eyes pricking with the threat of tears. He shook his head. Then Shanks stumbled across the stage, flinging his arm around the teens broad shoulders.

"I like him!" He bellowed, "He's got courage!"

He then turned and stumbled off, tripping and knocking himself out. Everyone is silent, having returned to face the stage and witness their previous victor tumbled off the stage.

Every camera was trained on him, and Zoro took the opportunity to break composure. His breath escapes in a small gasp and he squints his eyes closed to prevent tears. That would make him seem weak. He quickly took deep grounding breaths, staring at the trees and remembering hunting and hanging out with Usopp and Luffy...

Trying to get back on track, Iva clapped his hands and stood behind the bowl with the girl's names.

"Vhat and exciting day! But here is even more excitement! Time to choose our beautiful female tribute!" He gleefully reached into the bowl and grabbed a slip of paper. He strutted over to the podium and reads it.

"Blackleg Sanji, zats a strange name for a lady" he comments, peering out at the crowd. Zoro almost burst into laughter. Did the Okama just pull...? Sure enough, there he was.

Sanji walked into view. His long legs took confidant steps up to the stage. He smiled at every woman he passed, blowing his cigarette smoke into the air. The square was silent with shock as he came and stood on the other side of the stage from Zoro.

"Y... You're not a woman!" Iva said, a bit shocked.

"No shit." The blond spat his cigarette butt out into the ground, grinding his heel over it. His visible blue eye was smirking.

"How?" Smoker asked from his seat. He didn't trust his legs to stand to walk over to the boy.

"I couldn't let a beautiful lady go and risk her precious life. Mine is worth much less than theirs" Sanji said, almost sounding bored, "so I put my name in there, and took as many of theirs out as I could."

Zoro stared in disbelief at the blonde asshole. He put his name in the women's bowl? He wanted to die? What? He thought one of his asshole friends had done it as a joke.

"This..." Smoker gestured wildly at the blonde man, "is this allowed?"

Iva stood, staring at Sanji, then turned to Smoker.

"We need two tributes" the okama shrugged, "we have two tributes"

Smoker stared in disbelief, but stepped forward on shaking legs, reading out the monotonous Treaty of Treason. Zoro didn't listen, only staring at his fellow tribute.

"See something interesting Marimo?" The blonde snarled quietly.

"You wish." Zoro growled lowly, turning his he's away from him. He wondered if the blonde remembered. It happened years ago, so he might not. It was in the middle of winter. They were low on food, and he wasn't killing anything, the game was horrible. He had been walking with Chopper. His little brother had been so weak and thin he'd had to carry him most of the way. They had been stopped by the blond, who shoved box in Zoro's face. Zoro had almost knocked it over with surprise. He had opened his mouth to insult the blonde, but then he smelt it. The heavenly aroma of food. He stared at the box, then at Sanji.

"Take it. He needs it." The blonde had forced the box into his arms along with the starving shivering boy. He had turned on his heel right them and left, leaving Zoro in the middle of his thanks. When he had brought the box home, they had found several meals inside. Enough for all of them, for 2 days. He had saved them from starving. He had helped save Chopper.

Zoro was brought out of his memory by a movement in front of his face. Smoker motioned for the two tributes to shake hands.

The boys looked at each other, slowly reaching out and clasping hands. A large calloused and scarred tan hand enveloped a smaller pale hand, a hand make for cooking. Zoro almost shook his head. As if the prissy cook would last. Sanji seemed to have the identical thoughts as he looked over Zoro with what almost looked like pity. They stare at each other, and unspoken challenge._ I can get farther than you._


	2. Goodbye

Chapter 2

Goodbye

They're taken into custody and are herded into the back rooms. After the door closes, Zoro slumps onto the couch in his room. He glanced around, taking in the décor, it was the nicest room he'd ever been in. If you gave a shit about that sort of thing. Too bad he was being sent to kill and be killed. Maybe he could sort of appreciate the niceness of the room if he wasn't. But he is.

He sighs and rests his head on the back of the couch, taking deep centring breaths. It was visiting time, the allotted time friends and family of the tribute got to say goodbye. He had to keep it together. Chopper, Robin, Franky, Luffy and Usopp would be coming in, and they did not need to see him freaking out. They would be doing enough of that on their own. The door opens and Chopper shoots in, knocking the air out of him as he slams into his chest, fisting his hands in Zoro's shirt and sobbing. Zoro wraps his arms around him, holding him to his center. Robin and Franky follow him in, sitting next to the two on the couch, circling their arms around them. Zoro bows his head to rest his forehead against Choppers hair, the soft brown curls tickling his eyes. He feels Robin rest her head on his shoulder, Franky doing the same on his other side. He can feel the wetness of their tears through his shirt, the same feeling of wetness coming from his chest where Chopper's tears are falling. He squeezes his eyes shut, he will not cry, he will be strong. They sit in silence, and Zoro lets the feeling of his family around him sink into him and settle in his bones. He's only hoping it will stay there, to keep him sane during the games.

"Listen" Zoro starts, breaking the silence, "Chopper will not take any tesserae. You guys need to take care of him, Luffy and Usopp will bring you food and make sure you don't starve. Franky, you have to take care of them. I won't be there to help you with anything anymore, I won't be there to take care of things when you're gone."

He stares into the older man's eyes. Franky lets out a sob and tightens his arms around the group, "You got it Zoro-bro!"

"What, you think I can't take care of myself?" Robin asks, barely holding back her tears, she sits up a bit, wiping at her eyes, "we'll be fine if you get yourself killed."

Chopper lets out a wail and hugs Zoro tighter. Zoro glares at Robin. "None of your morbid talking about the games, it freaks Chopper out."

"I'll be fine Zoro" Chopper sniffles, looking up at his brother, "but you have to take care of yourself too... You're really strong and fast, and you're the best swordsman ever! You can win this!"

Zoro smiles half-heartedly, he'll try. Yes he's strong, but there are probably guys stronger than him, from the lower number districts, so pumped up on steroids and devil fruits, definitely stronger than him, he knew that, "I'll try little reindeer. Then when I come back we can have a nicer house and more food."

"I don't care about that." Chopper squeaks, "I just want you to come back home. You will come back, promise?"

"Promise." Zoro grins and ruffles his hair.

"Here." Chopper starts picking at his shirt furiously. After a minute he holds out his hand triumphantly, "now you can't lose. And when you come back, I'll be the best doctor in the district."

Zoro forces a smile and takes the small gold pin, "Then you can patch me up and make me look brand new again."

He pins it to his shirt, right over his heart. He pats it and Chopper beams through his tears. Then a Marine is at the door, motioning for his family to leave. He grips Chopper in a tight hug, then lets him go to hug Robin and Franky. Chopper grabs his leg, but is pulled off by Franky.

"Zoro!" He screams as the doors close. Zoro's small grin drops into a snarl as he stares at the door. He only has to wait a few minutes more before the doors slam open and Luffy, Usopp and Ace are in the room.

"I'm so jealous! I wanna go and fight!" Luffy yells, launching himself into the couch next to Zoro. His brother Ace smacks him in the back of his head. Zoro has to fight back the urge to smile, it's just so natural, seeing Ace scolding Luffy.

"No meat" he growled before turning to Zoro, and his scowl softens.

"This sucks man." He held out his hand and Zoro shook it. Ace and Zoro were close, but Ace's narcolepsy prevented him from venturing out into the forest with the rest of them, so they didn't see each other often.

"Zoorooo" Usopp sobbed, his legs shaking and knocking together. Zoro shook his head, "Listen, you guys gotta make sure they have food and supplies, watch Chopper for me, make sure he doesn't get into trouble, and protect him like I would. And get Shuusui and Kitetsu from the tree, get them to Robin."

The three teens nodded.

"You'll be back Zoro." Luffy said, his face completely serious, "you're strong, and my best friend. There's no way you'd lose."

"Yeah Zoro! All you have to do is get swords! Then you'll be unstoppable! If you listen to my battle plan and think of the great Captain Usopp when you're fighting there's no way you'll lose!" Usopp yelled, his fist in the air.

"That will just get him killed sooner" Ace sniggers. They spend the rest of their time, joking, trying not to focus on the fact it might be the last time they see Zoro alive.

The marines are back all too soon. Luffy grabs Zoro in a hug that prevents him from breathing, Usopp clings to his shoulder, and then Ace falls asleep on him, the emotions triggering his narcolepsy. Zoro hands him to his brother, who lifts him onto his back.

"Take care of them!" Zoro yelled as the doors started closing.

"Shishishi, you got it!" Luffy's smiling face was the last thing he saw before the wood of the door took up his field of vision again. Ok, now he could freak out.

Ssssss

Sanji sat in the room silently smoking a cigarette. Yes, he had gotten himself into this shit, but honestly, he was starting to panic. He put his name in, of his own free will, to die. He groaned, well this is fucking shitty.

He heard the door open and didn't have to look up to know it was that shitty old man. He rolled to the side as a peg leg smashed into the couch right where his he's head had been.

"What the fuck were you thinking, you shitty little eggplant!?" Zeff roared, his mustache trembling in anger. Sanji took a long drag of his cigarette before answering "What do you think crappy geezer?"

"You're a fucking idiot Sanji!" Patty growled, peering in at the blonde man from the doorway. Carne stood next to him, scowling as well, "You might have lived a long life, never would have had to go and be murdered on a bloody field for entertainment. But no, you had to be a moron and now you're going to die. Wouldn't be surprised if that green haired guy kills you first. The chick you saved is probably gonna end up dying next year. One year with two male tributes isn't gonna change anything Sanji, you threw your life away. What kind of shitty chef would throw away their chance to continue cooking and perfecting their trade, you could have used the time."

Both Sanji and Zeff turned and glared at Carne, He stood and stared back at them. Fear growing on his face as he took in the murderous looks on both faces. Zeff was the first to speak. "Get the fuck out of here"

Both Patty and Carne paled, backing up from the door way before running for it, "Hope your death isn't too painful!" _Don't die _"Try and stay in the games for longer than an hour, don't embarrass us here in the district." _Do your best, we know you can do it. We'll be cheering for you._

Zeff and Sanji were left alone, staring at each other. Zeff shifted, tapping the floor with his peg leg. "At least we have a chance at having a victor from the district."

Sanji looked up at him in shock, did he just… _compliment_ him? Zeff noted his expression and snorted at him, "The green haired one. He looks strong. And he can use that sword, I've bought game from him. He only cuts it once, a clean painless killing blow, he doesn't let the animal struggle that much is obvious, it's always clean and he's brought back game that could kill weaklings like you in an instant."

Sanji bristled and snarled at Zeff, he'd seen the game the moss head brought back, yes it was always killed with a single cut, but he could do just as well. "I'll win" He growled

Zeff snorted, "You won't be able to kill him, see if you can get him to protect you. Then maybe you can make it a few hours before he kills you from annoyance."

"Stop talking about him!" Sanji yelled, and Zeff smirked. "Whatever eggplant. Too bad you were an idiot and entered yourself, now I'm going to have to find another shitty sous chef to take over your job. They'll probably do a better job than you ever did. Try not to die too soon. Try to make it entertaining. Bye little eggplant, I won't miss your bitching" _I still can't believe you did this. I don't know how I'll ever replace you. Do your best, do it all. Don't die, come back. I'll miss you. I love you._

Zeff turned and left the room, turning to the right when he exited the room. Sanji flipped his receding back the bird, before kicking the table across the room. Swearing violently he pulled another cigarette out of his pocket and flicked at his lighters wheel with shaking fingers. Damn him.

ZZZZZ

Zeff limped fast down the hall, before stopping at another wooden door. With one glare the marines pulled the door open and he hobbled inside. The teen had his head in his hands, his fingers clenched in his hair so tightly it looked painful.

"Bravery fading?" Zeff asked, making the teen jump, he had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts he hadn't heard him come in. He stood warily, "Roronoa Zoro"

"I know your name brat, everyone in the damned district knows it" Zeff said, moving further into the room, "Redleg Zeff"

"You own the Baratie." Zoro said, still watching him. Zeff smirked, then let his smile wash off his face. "Help him."

"What?" confusion was written plainly over Zoro's face, "who?"

"Sanji. My shitty little eggplant" Zeff said, crossing his arms and glaring at Zoro. The teen was staring at him like he was crazy. Well, he was. He was asking the man who may very well end his foster son's life to spare it. "He's in this damn game because of women, do you really think he would do anything to prevent one from taking his life?"

Zoro stared at him, then let out a short dark chuckle. "Protect him from the women? Are you kidding me? Why are you asking me?"

"I don't know" Zeff admitted, "Maybe fathers who care about their kids get desperate."

He turned and walked from the room. Leaving Zoro to stare as his door was closed again. "Weird old man."

zzzzz

Zoro stepped out of the car at the train station. It had been a short ride from the town square to the station. To short. He had tried to memorise every detail of his district, the people, the buildings and the landscape. Flashes went off as he slide fully out of the car. He threw a hand up over his eyes and scowled, flipping the bird to the reporters. He was smacked in the back of the head by Ivankov and stumbled forward. Sanji stepped out of the car and straightened his suit, lighting another cigarette, and blowing kisses at the female reporters.

"Stand here and smile" Ivankov instructed, pushing and pulling them together, posing them for photos. Zoro tried to keep his face devoid of emotion, but small hints of his glare and scowl showed through his mask. He wanted nothing more to snarl and rip the cameras from their hands. Sanji smiled and winked and blew more kisses at the women. After the reporters had their fill they were thrown into the train. Zoro settled into a window seat, staring out at the trees. Suddenly they were moving, and the landscape blurred. Zoro had never been on a train, and one look at Sanji who was gripping an armrest of a chair confirmed he never had either. Once both were used to the speed, Ivankov showed them around the train. Both are given their own rooms, with bathrooms. There's a dining car, and a casual sitting car where the drunken Shanks is sitting, drinking from a bottle.

Sanji started asking something about a kitchen and Zoro steals away to go to his room. He prowls around, searching though the drawers and room. Eventually he enters the bathroom. He strips and steps into the weird box he guesses is the shower the marines sometimes talk about, staring in confusion at the knobs. Eventually he figures out how to work it and can barely hold back an almost sexual moan as the hot water hits his skin and slides almost sinfully down his body. After a life of washing in water that was barely heated by a fire, this was heaven. After he feels he's clean enough, he steps out and goes through the drawers again. The okama said anything in the room was his. He pulled out a dark green shirt and new black pants. He picked up his old clothes, taking his black bandana, haramaki and Wadō. Once he had everything in place, he knelt down again and pulled the little gold pin Luffy and then Chopper had given him. He stared at it. It was probably a relic of Gold Rogers era or maybe even a more recent development. If he remembered correctly, these pins were worn by members of crews, called pirate crews. They weren't actually pirates in the sense that they sailed in ships, there weren't any oceans nearby, but were groups of rebels who defied the government under a captain. Each captain had his own symbol, and they were made into pins for his or her crew to wear. Zoro smiled at the pin, obviously he was now part of Luffy's crew, if it even meant that. There were so many pins in circulation, half of them didn't mean anything other than being a small gold trinket. Probably a ploy by the pirates to stay somewhat hidden from the government. He pinned it to his shirt over his heart and stood.

He left the room and was assaulted with rich smells, delicious scents he'd never smelt before. He followed his nose to the dining room. Sanji and Ivankov were sitting down to eat and Zoro quickly joined them.

"Where's Shanks?" Zoro asked, nodding at the empty chair while reaching for a bottle of sake. He glanced at the label and gave an appreciative nod before uncorking it and swallowing half the bottle.

"Off being his alcoholic self." Ivankov said, then nodded at Zoro, "Be careful or you may end up like him."

Zoro snorted, taking another large sip before answering, "I can hold my booze"

They lapsed into silence, Zoro eating quickly and quietly, trying to eat as much as he could. Never before had he seen this much food in one place, and he could have it all. Sanji wasn't so awed, but then again, his foster father owned the best restaurant in probably all of the districts.

"You two are so much better than the two from last year, they ate with their hands." Ivankov said, shivering. Both Sanji and Zoro stopped eating. The tributes had been scrawny young children who had never had enough food. Zoro slowly placed his fork on the table. His manners had been beaten into him by Robin, but manners be damned. He took the piece of meat he had been eating in his hand and tore a strip off with his teeth, all the while staring at Ivankov. The Okama just stared back at him in horror.

After eating the boys and the okama went to the casual sitting car to watch the reapings from the other district. The World Government recorded them, then played them one after the other, in order of district. Both Sanji and Zoro can hardly look at the screen, at the faces that will either kill them or be killed by them. Most tributes are called up when their name is called, looking sick and pale. The only other volunteers are from the districts close to Impel Down. The districts the marines are born and trained in. They go to school to train for the fucking games. The victors are almost always from district 1 or 2. Zoro has to look away from the screen when a young pink haired boy that looks about Chopper's age is called from district 11, his hair reminding him painfully of the pink hat his brother wore. But unlike Chopper no one volunteers for him.

Then district 12 shows. Zoro winces as Choppers name rings through the room and his roar of "I volunteer!" is thundering. He almost sighed in relief when he realized it made him sound fearsome and strong, not terrified and desperate like he had actually been. Then Sanji is called. The commentators spend a good 20 minutes discussing the reaping from their district, almost 10 minutes more than the other districts. When the screen went blank they sat in silence.

"I wonder how we'll fare this year…" Ivankov mused as he left the room. Zoro and Sanji sat a while longer, not looking at each other. Zoro stood and nodded at the blonde before heading off to his room.

Where ever that was…

When he finally finds his room he simply strips and climbs between the soft covers, too tired to do anything else. He rolls over trying to get comfortable and shudders at the feeling of the fabric against his skin. He closes his eyes and let the smooth movement of the train lull him to sleep

zzzzz

Zoro opens his eyes to the sound of knocking. It takes him a second to figure out where he is before he stumbles out of the bed. Groaning he throws on the clothes he had on last night, attaches his sword to his waist and opens the door.

"It's going to be a big day!" Ivankov yells happily in his face before prancing down the hall. Zoro stares after him blankly. He yawns and makes his way slowly down the hall after the purple haired weirdo. As he walks he ruffles his short scruffy hair, wondering what his stylist would do to him. Each tribute gets a stylist for the opening ceremonies, interviews and all that shit. Honestly, Zoro didn't really get why. Why would you spend time making someone look good before sending them off to die? It just seemed messed up. Then again the World Government and the people who lived in Impel Down were messed up, so in a way it fit.

He steps into the dining car, Ivankov is glowering at Shanks who is doubled over laughing and Sanji is putting plates on the table. Zoro snorted and rolled his eyes, was the idiot seriously playing waiter while they're on their way to possible death?

"Marimo." Sanji says, and it takes Zoro a second to realize he's talking to him. He snarled at the blonde, "What did you just call me?"

"Marimo." The Sanji said, pulling his cigarette from his mouth, "It's a moss ball. Like you."

"Wanna die before you get to the arena?" Zoro growls, drawing Wadō. Sanji just grins at him, "bring it moss head, I could use a bit of light exercise."

Zoro lunged at him, and finds Wadō stopped in midair. He looks at the cook surprised, he's holding him off with his foot. Shitty bastard was lucky he was using the back of his sword, or that foot would have been in half. He snarled and pulled back, but before he could attack again he found himself flying to the side.

"NO!" Ivankov yelled as he if he was scolding a bad dog. Zoro groaned and rubbed his side where the okama hit him, he noticed Sanji doing the same across the room, "Save it for the arena"

"Looks like we've actually got a pair of fighters this year! We have a chance!" Shanks cheers, "If they don't kill each other first."

"Oi, aren't you supposed to be helping us? Like giving us advise and shit?" Sanji asks, standing up from the ground and brushing his pants off

"Sure, don't die."

Both of them glare at the red haired drunk, but he only laughs. "You," he points at Zoro, "how good are you with that sword? Can you actually use it?"

Zoro stared at him, then held Wadō up. He quickly flicked his wrist at the table, and they stared at him, waiting for him to do something. They jump as a pitcher on the table splits perfectly in half.

"Perfect!" Shanks yelled, laughing as he jumped up and danced, not even caring he had orange juice covering his pants. He turned eagerly to Sanji, "And you?"

Sanji sighed and backed up. He flipped gently onto his hand and spun, his form blurring, almost kicking Shanks in the face, then he flipped back onto his feet.

"Good" Shanks rubbed his hands together gleefully, dancing in circles, "WE HAVE A CHANCE!"

"And they're both handsome young men" Ivankov purred, causing both men to shudder and shift away from him, "Once their stylists are finished with them they'll be perfect!"

"Okay, here, I'll help you and advise you and all that shit, but you actually have to listen to me and do what I say, or no deal." Shanks looked between the two of them, "and no messing with my booze, I drink as much as I want, but I won't get completely drunk, I'll stay sober enough to help.

"Fine" Sanji sighed. Zoro grinned, "Only if you share."

Shanks grinned at him, "I like you."

* * *

A/N: I know Zeff is a bit OOC here, but it's just how I thought he would act, cause we all know he cares about Sanji. And Peeta's dad visits Katniss in the books...


	3. Opening Ceremonies

Chapter 3

Opening ceremony

When the train finally rolls into Impel Down the citizens are all crowding around the tracks. Sanji hangs himself half out the window, waving and blowing kisses to all the women, who all blushed, some pretending to catch them. Zoro only glares at the window, anyone who catches his eye backs up from the tracks in fear. He grins, a sickening grin, a grin that would scare a killer.

"You're never gonna get sponsors like that." Shanks sighed next to him, "At least Sanji here is trying; he's being nice and making people like him. Who's gonna vote for the person whose face haunts their nightmares?"

"Would you rather vote for someone who looks like they'll win, or some freak who has a nosebleed every time he sees something in a skirt?" Zoro counters, smirking. Shanks stares at him for a minute before walking away laughing.

"Asshole" Sanji mutters at him before he goes back to fawn over the strangers out the window. Zoro shrugs and leans against the window to take a quick nap.

When they finally arrive they're herded into a large building and sent into rooms where they're supposed to be prepped for their stylists. Zoro decides to continue his nap on the weird chair-bed thing in the center of the room. About 20 minutes pass before he wakes up, sensing something in the room with him.

"You're not cute." A whiny voice comes from very close up. He opens his eyes and hold back a yell of surprise when he sees a large heavily made up face right in front of his.

"What to do… well there's lots to do! Let's start with hair." Zoro stares at her, noting her pink hair. Oh dear god, what the hell was she going to do to him. She almost floats to a counter and starts meddling with stuff.

"Who are you?" He asks, sitting up and watching her. She turns around and gives the creepiest smile he's ever seen, and that even counting Robin. "I'm going to make you cute. But I can't do anything I want! I hate these orders!"

"That doesn't answer the question." He growls already tired of her. She pouts at him, "Even your attitude isn't cute. I'm Perona."

Zoro decided he didn't like Perona. Especially since the only word in her vocabulary seemed to be cute. And she looked like some freaky gothic princess, in a huge black and pink puffy dress. He sat still as she flitted around him, complaining about his non-cuteness and how she wasn't allowed to make him cute.

After nearly four hours of not just the physical torture of being waxed, plucked, scrubbed clean and groomed, but also the mental torture of having to listen to the pink haired girl talk, Zoro was ready to kill her. Or himself. Whichever would end the hell.

"I guess this is the best you're gonna get" she sighed, as she floated sadly around him. He glares at her, not for the half insult, but for her voice. His eyes flick to his sword, trying to figure out how fast he could grab it and cut her tongue out before she screamed. She sighs loudly and pouts, "I have to go now, try not to die too soon, but when you do, can you make it cute?"

Zoro just stares at her. What the hell? How do you die… cutely? She lunges and hugs him, leaving him shocked and fuming as she prances out of the room. Zoro falls back onto the bed/chair thing and rubs his hand over his face. That was hell. Hell, hell, hell. He tries to calm his breathing and soothe his headache. He hears the door open and his lips pull up into a snarl. If she's back again…

"Whoa Zoro-ya, already trying to kill me? You haven't even heard my plans. I can see where the nickname comes from." A low smooth male voice says, chuckling. Zoro removes his hand from over his eyes and stares at the man. He wore a big fluffy white had with spots, a black and yellow hoodie and grey jeans with spots. Was that eye liner? From the skin he could see, he could tell the man had tattoos.

"Nickname?" Zoro asks, eyeing the other man. He'd never seen him before, probably a new stylist. Just his luck, his first year he was stuck with District 12.

"Trafalgar Law" He says, holding his hand out. Zoro shakes it, not even caring he's completely naked in front of a guy he's just meeting. When Law goes to pull back his hand Zoro notices the words Death spelled across his knuckles. Great. He has a psycho as a stylist,

"And you're being called the Demon of District 12. The looks you gave at the reaping, and at the station, I almost considered sending someone else in so I wouldn't be killed." Law says, cracking a smile. Zoro smirks at the other man, "They sure know how to flatter a guy."

Law laughs and walks around Zoro's body, not touching, just studying. He comes to a stop a few feet in front of Zoro. "I have few designs for you, but I have one in mind that will work perfectly. It will show a perfect representation of you. Where'd you get the scars by the way? They're awesome."

"Isn't it supposed to represent the district?" Zoro asked, quirking an eyebrow at the man. Law snorts, "Like I care about that shit. It represents you, and, if you stretch it, can pass for the district. Listen Zoro-ya, I have my own way of doing things, if you don't like it, tough. Scars."

Zoro grinned at him, thanking god or whatever that despite the man's appearance, he'd gotten a decent stylist. He points at his chest, at the large scar crossing his chest from left shoulder to right hip, "swordfight with Hawkeyes"

Zoro can tell Law knows the name, but the other man doesn't comment. Zoro looks at the other various scars, "The ones on my ankles are from when I got stuck and tried cutting myself free, and the rest are from fights and hunting."

"You tried to cut your own feet off?" Law stares at him, then laughs, "the outfit I have planned for you is perfect, demon."

zzzzz

A few hours later, Zoro is staring into the mirror, he doesn't really recognize himself. His outfit isn't really an outfit, more his skin being covered in paint. His torso and face are smudged with dark gold, gray and black chalky looking paint, almost looking like he climbed out of a coal mine. The black, gold and grays blend and smudge together over his skin, complementing his tan skin in a weird way. The paint almost highlights his scars, making them painfully obvious. His hair is still green, but styled so it looks wild. Somehow Law managed to get black horns in his hair so they looked like they had actually come from his head. His eyes were shrouded with black liner, and lighter stuff was smudged on the area around his eyes. He sighed, Demon of District 12. It fit. Law came up behind him and started fiddling with something, pressing it against his back, just between his shoulder blades.

"What's that?" Zoro asked, not even bothering to look back. Law grinned at him over his shoulder, "wings."

"What?" Zoro jerks his head back and tries to look over his shoulders back. Law holds up the end of a wing not attached to him. It looks like a weird crow's wing, the black feathers gleaming at him. As he's staring at the wings Law grabs his head and sticks something behind his ear.

"What the hell?" he asks swatting at the man's hands, "What was that?"

"The controls." Law says, stepping back and grinning with creepy glee. Zoro glares, the controls for what? He feels something hit his arm and he flinches. He looks over to see a wing twitching against his bicep.

"What the fuck?" He yells, the wings twitching faster, agitatedly. Law was grinning like a kid who had been given the best birthday gift, "they're a new trend, the control reads the pulse behind your ear and imitates the way an actual bird would move their wings at that pulse rate... Cool huh?"

Zoro shook his head at his stylist, "what the fuck am I? A demon? Shouldn't I look like something that's gonna rip a throat out? Less stripper-ish?"

Law sighed, "Honestly, I wanted to paint you red and send you out looking like Satan, or maybe even half animal and covered in fake blood, but Vivi, my partner, thought it would be better to have you two dressed in the latest trend, which is the moving animal's parts, and for sex appeal. She said it would draw more sponsors. And she really knows what the people want, she's all about the people. We thought the black wings would suit you best, with the whole demon thing."

Zoro just looks at him, "You people and your fashion trends are weird."

Law only laughs in response.

ssssss

Sanji is led into a large room where 12 chariots are lined up. The last one was his and Zoro's. He scans the room looking all the other tributes over. Some of them look his way and stare at the wings.

"He's cute, if I wasn't here I would totally go out him. Isn't he the one they're calling Saint Sanji?" A beautiful brunette in an outfit made of flowers whispered to her equally flowery male partner. Sanji smiled and waved at her, causing her to blush. He continued on

"Vivi-chan, why wings" He asked again. His stylist, a beautiful woman named Vivi shrugged, brushing her blue hair off of her shoulders, "They're the biggest trend in Impel Down, and the people will love them! The creators may even sponsor you if sales go up because of you guys. You two will draw in so many sponsors, especially since it will be so different from every other district, since we didn't go with the traditional represent the district. This year Law said represent the tributes so…"

She trails off, he mouth falling slightly open. Gasps are echoing round the room. Sanji looks away from his stunning stylist, who was causing that? When Sanji sees Zoro, he gasps as well. Vivi had told him they would be dress as opposites, he didn't get what she meant. When she had dressed him in a tight white tank top and white jeans along with small but beautiful wings he was confused, was Zoro dressing in all black with black wings? Now he gets it. Zoro looks demonic, and he looks angelic. Or somewhat angelic.

"You're a badass angel, a sexy angel. You need sponsors, and Law and I think this is the best way to draw them in." She had said while attaching the wings to his back, "Besides, you're called Saint Sanji, because of what you did for the girls of your district. It works perfectly."

"What's he wearing Vivi-chan? Are we both badass angels?" Sanji had asked, but she had only smiled and shook her head. Had she known about this? The mosshead looked terrifying, but in a good way. Like a stripper almost. He looked good. Sanji cringed, no, he did not just think that about the moss.

Zoro strides over, his muscular arms swinging as he chatted with the man walking next to him. His white sword hanging at his hip. It fit his costume perfectly, in a weird contrasting way.

"Now that's who I would go after." The partner of the flower girl said, and Sanji could her several murmurs of agreement. They meant as in to kill him, right?

"Who is that?" A girl near him hisses at her stylist, "Please tell me he's not a tribute."

"Why" The stylist asked. The girl looked at Zoro, "Partly because he looks like he could kill me with his bare hands, partly because I don't think you can sleep with fellow tributes."

zzzzz

Zoro raised his eyebrows at the blonde's appearance. Wow, so they were a pair. Devil and angel kind of thing.

"You look…. Oh my god candy boy, if it weren't for the opening ceremony I would drag you to my room." Ivankov dragged his hand up Zoro's chest, causing the green haired teen to jerk back and fall on his ass. His wings twitched angrily as he glared at the awkward laughing group. He looked around as he stood up, snarling at the other tributes that were watching them. Most of them averted their eyes quickly, looking terrified, some blushed, and others returned the glare. The ones that returned the glares were obviously the volunteers.

"Ok, great job Vivi-ya, he looks saintly. Hello Sanji-ya, I'm Trafalgar Law." Law said as he pushed the two to the chariot.

"If you two could hold hands…" Ivankov trilled, trying to follow, but Shanks held him back. Law shook his head, "You don't have to hold hands, and Zoro-ya, lock your bedroom door tonight. You too Sanji-ya."

Zoro and Sanji exchanged a terrified look, forget the other tributes, Ivankov was the scariest thing in Impel Down.

"Good luck you two, they're going to die when they see you!" Law said as he backed off. They stood awkwardly side by side on the small chariot, their hands occasionally brushing.

"Can you turn those wings off?" Sanji asks after a minute, pointing at the wing snacking his arm repeatedly. Zoro winced and the wing moved away from Sanji, folding against his back, "Sorry."

"You can control it?" Sanji asked, he hand been holding his own attached wing tips so they wouldn't knock him out of the chariot. Zoro shrugged, "I guess, Law just told me to take deep breaths and they'll close. He also said they have sensors that respond to arm movements."

Sanji was about to ask him to show him when the chariot jolted and they were moving. He could see the open arena through the doors. Torches were flickering along the dirt path the chariots were taking into the middle of the large bowl. Sanji glanced at Zoro, the firelight would look great with his outfit. The applause is growing louder as they get closer to the doors. The pair from District 11 pass through the door and another round starts up. Sanji closes his eyes and tries taking a calming breath. It just comes out shaky and nervous sounding. He felt something nudge his shoulder, he glanced over at Zoro, who shot him a gleaming smile that took his breath away. Shit he looked demonic.

"Chill" Zoro said, squeezing his shoulder quickly before pulling away and contorting his face into a snarl. Sanji's heart did a nervous leap and he tried his best to smile. When the torchlight first hit their chariot there were scream and gasps. Sanji looked around, the crowd was staring wide eyed at them. He glanced at the large screens hanging from giant pillars in the arena. Zoro was switching between a cocky evil smirk and a snarl. His wings twitching and slightly opening behind him, looking completely real. He looked almost innocent and pure next to him. His white wings floating lightly behind him. _Opposites. _Sanji started waving and blowing kisses to the lovely female audience members. The crowd gasped as his wings opened as he raised his arms. So that's what Zoro meant. On a whim he grabs Zoro's hand and holds it over their heads, almost triumphantly. Zoro's ebony wing unfold, much and spread to their full length, making Zoro look like he was about to take flight. Sanji's grin grew and he lifted his arms higher to spread his wings more, still waving, winking and blowing kisses. The applause is deafening, and they started chanting "District 12! District 12! District 12!"

Zoro, the Demon of District 12 and Saint Sanji. Oh yeah, they were gonna be remembered.

"Zoro! Zoroo! Zoro!" Sanji! Sanjiiii! Sanji!"

Sanji turns and smirks at Zoro, who returns the grin, "I think they like us Marimo."

"Me a bit more than you curly-brow" Zoro says, smirking before turning away and getting hit in the face with a bouquet of roses. Sanji lets go of his hand to grab it as it bounces off his face. Zoro's scowl is even more terrifying, but Sanji only laughs. He takes roses from the bouquet and tosses them into the crowd, hundreds of hands reaching for them.

Finally they reach the circle in the middle of the arena. The horses stop perfectly in place, and Sanji can feel the eyes of all the other tributes on them. Did they not get their fill before?

The music stops and everyone looks up as President Blackbeard stands up to give his speech, but Sanji totally tunes him out, his blood was pounding in his ears, drowning out all sound. He glances at the screens and notices his own face staring back at him along with Zoro's. The camera usually cuts to the faces of the tributes during the speech, but their faces are showing up more often than the others. He grins brightly, they're going to be unforgettable.

After the speech the chariots leave in order, each of the chariots is shown leaving, but their chariot is the one followed by the camera until the last second.

When they get back into the large room they stumble off the chariot together. Sanji looks round, noticing the jealous, dirty looks being shot their way. They outshone everyone. Then he noticed the lustful looks being shot at them, but mostly at Zoro. Oh. They were jealous. But of him. They wanted to be in his place. He had some adoring eyes directed at him, but Zoro was the one half naked.

"That was something" Zoro said, rolling his shoulders. Sanji nodded his agreement.

"You were wonderful! Oh, I wish I could have been out there with you two…" Ivankov was giggling and squirming, "you should have heard what everyone was saying-"

Shanks cuts him off, pushing him to the side, "You guys did well, you'll have sponsors for sure. Especially female sponsors."

"Les get you two cleaned up," Law says, pushing in between the two, Vivi, Igaram (the man who prepped Sanji and a pink haired girl followed him.

"Oh god, no. Get away from me!" Zoro screeched, Sanji stared in shock as the big scary Zoro backed away from the little pink haired girl.

"YOU AREN'T CUTE!" She screamed back at him. She pointed at Sanji, "He's cute! Let me make you cute! All you need is a bow!"

She practically floated over to Zoro and wrapped herself around his arm. He cringed and held his arm far from his body, "Yes, you need a pink bow around your neck..."

"I feel bad for him." Law said as he watch Zoro shake Perona, "she's one of the most annoying people I've ever met, it takes tremendous will power not to hang her by her stupid pink curls."

Sanji laughed as Zoro was dragged of by the pink haired girl, and he turned to follow Vivi-chan and Igaram to where he would change.

* * *

A/N: I blame the wings on Of The Sky by auspizien, which is completely amazing. Is LAw ok as a stylist? I thought he would fit the role pretty well..

And yeah, I have a thing for Zoro, if you couldn't tell. I love his whole Demon of the East Blue, so I had to incorporate it.


	4. Training

utuki: Now I know who to blame for this ;) and thank you! :) I'm going to try the get a bit further away from the original plot in the coming chapters, the first I really had no idea what to write.

thisfairytalegonebad: Thank you so much!I was honestly grinning ear to ear as I read this! :)

SFZK: Thank you! sorry I didn't say anything sooner, I didn't get how to read my reviews until now.

* * *

Chapter 4

Training

Zoro yawns as he sits down heavily at the table. He didn't sleep well the night before, tossing and turning as faces of his friends and family covered in blood danced behind his closed eyelids. He rolls his shoulders, enjoying the feel of the muscle shirt on his skin. He had woken up to find the green muscle shirt, tight black pants and leather shoes on the end of his bed. Obviously he was supposed to wear them.

"Here you go mossy" Sanji places a plate in front of him before walking away to fawn over the females of the team. He blinked, then looked at Sanji's outfit, then his own. Seriously? He was wearing the exact same thing, but with a blue muscle shirt. They were twins. _Goddammit Law. _

"Okay kiddos, Sanji get over here, let's chat" Shanks flung himself into a chair, already holding a bottle of booze, "Here's the deal, do you guys want me to coach or train or whatever you guys separately? Or together?"

"Why?" Zoro asked, swallowing a mouthful of food. Shanks smirks at him, "In case you have a plan to kill each other you don't want the other person to hear."

"Do I really need a plan to kill that idiot?" Zoro asked, pointing his thumb and Sanji, who was doing a strange dance in front of, oh shit. Zoro groaned as Perona waved at him. She was here to? He really needed to lock his door, maybe he could ask for someone to stand outside at night.

"No, because you'll die before you can kill me, so there's no point." Sanji said, sitting next to Zoro, "Besides, I already know how you fight."

"Right, with a sword, but it's more than that" Zoro said, returning to his food, "And I know how you fight too, you kick. But what's your super-secret talent shitty cook? Are you gonna beat someone to death with a spatula?"

"I would never mistreat a kitchen utensil!" Sanji's face was filled with horror, "and I don't just kick, I kick box, my old man taught me. Redleg Zeff."

Shanks' eyes widened and he laughed joyfully, "Perfect, not only do you have skill, but if Zeff taught you, you've gotta have power. You're good. If you can take his hit and fight back you can survive. So Zoro, as you said, got a super-secret talent you'd like to share?"

"Don't you use three swords? I mean you only have one, but you usually use three right?" Sanji asked. Zoro moved his hand to his hip instinctually, feeling only one where there should be three. He stared at the blonde, scowling at the reminder of having to leave the other two behind, then nodded, "I practice Santoryu, three sword style."

"Really! You're that kid Mihawk was talking about then." Shanks said, nodding eagerly, "Oh my god, we're gonna win this year for sure"

"Mihawk?!" Zoro shot upright, almost knocking the table over, his hand tightening on Wadō, "You know him? How? What did he say about me?"

Shanks laughed, "Calm down kid, I used to work with him, before the government, and a few years back he was talking about some kid he actually spared because he showed real talent, and had spunk. He wanted the kid to defeat him, and take his place as world's greatest swordsman. He didn't say his name, but how many people actually fight with three swords? It sounded like he almost liked you." He leaned forward, "That scar on your chest, he gave it to you right? He said you turned around and held your arms out, like you knew you couldn't win, and said something about how scars on the back a swordsman's shame."

"Yeah. That's the scar he gave me" Zoro, said numbly, he fell back into his seat. The greatest swordsman wanted him to beat him. To take his place. He had to get through his alive. No matter what. He felt his neck prickle and turned to see the eyes of everyone in the room on him.

"You, Zoro-ya, are incredible." Law nodded. Zoro shook his head laughing and grinned, "It's my dream. To become the world's greatest swordsman. Then I wasn't ready. Next time, I will be. I'm willing to give up my life to achieve my dream."

Sanji sat silently in awe. He had no idea how Zoro had gotten the scar. He remembered a few years back, when all of a sudden rumors had flown around the school that the terrifying green haired kid that carried three swords was dead. Then the next week Zoro had shown up at school again. Sanji faintly remembered how he had stood up in the middle of class, covering his front with his tattered jacket, asking to go to the nurse's office. The teacher had asked what he was hiding, and had ripped the jacket out of his hands. In all honesty, Sanji had expected the Marimo to have gotten a random erection in class and was embarrassed about it, they were around that age after all. But what he saw almost made him yell out in shock. His shirt was covered in blood, fresh blood too. It was quickly seeping through the fabric, his shirt becoming so saturated it dripped onto the floor. The teacher had screamed, running from the room calling for a doctor. The girls of the class had run up to try and help the pale looking moss head, and the boys stared in awe. They were preteen boys, blood and cuts were cool, and Zoro had just become one of the coolest kids. He hadn't come back to school for another two weeks, but when he came back he was fine.

Sanji blinked and stared at the Marimo again. Who would have thought? He pulled himself out of his thoughts and found Shanks looking at him. Shit was he supposed to say something? Shit fuck. "Sometimes my old man buys the game he kills, it's always killed with one clean slice, and it always looks like there wasn't a struggle."

Zoro looked over at him and quirked an eyebrow. Fuck. He'd just complimented him. Shiiiittt. He was struggling to find something insulting to say to cover up the compliment when Zoro spoke, "I've seen you fight, you're pretty good yourself. That Jyabura guy, the one who was harassing that girl at school right? He didn't come to school for 3 weeks or something after Sanji kicked his ass."

Sanji stared at Zoro. Did he just… compliment him back? "You'll get farther than me though" He muttered under his breath.

"Why do you think that?" Shanks asked. Sanji sighed, "I can't… hit a lady. I'm a gentleman, and ladies are for spoiling. If it were only men in the games, I would be fine, but… I can't..."

"Your strategy is to stay away from women then." Shanks said, then turned to the both of them, "Ok, let's get on with other strategy. For the training sessions, stay away from you preferred fighting style."

Both teens gaped at him, "WHAT?! WHY?!"

"Save it for the private sessions, when you show the Admirals what you can do. For the group training sessions, you'll be with all the other tributes, try to learn new skills that will be useful in the arena. If you show off now they have time to plan ways to kill you based on your skills." Shanks said, draining his bottle, "Figure out snares for trapping food and other tributes, how to make a shelter, a fire, try different weapons, maybe do a few small kicks, or train with only one sword, but no going all out. Oh, and we've decided, if you chose to be coached together, it would be best for you two to spend all your time in public together, be best buddies. Kind of like a 'fuck you' to the World Government and all that shit. So that plan is now in effect."

"What?" Zoro choked out, "With this idiot? Why? I don't want to spend time with him."

Sanji snarled at him, "The feelings mutual moss head"

"Not open for discussion, I won this fucking stupid competition once, I know what I'm doing. And I agreed to help you if you listened to me, and obeyed my every word. So you better fucking do it!" Shanks growled standing up, "Meet Ivankov at the elevator at ten to go to the training session."

The teens stared after him. Zoro sighed, standing up, grumbling, "This is gonna be hell."

"Couldn't agree more Marimo." Sanji muttered as he walked out of the room to the roof, lighting his cigarette.

zzzzz

At ten Zoro made his way to the elevator, he's spent most of his waiting time polishing Wadō, and now she gleamed in the light. He nodded at Ivankov and Sanji as he stepped into the elevator with them. He searched his mind to remember the other tributes, picking out who had looked like a good opponent.

The elevator ride took less than a minute, the training center or gymnasium was the basement of the housing building. The doors slide open with a gentle whoosh, showing an array of weapons, courses and stations. Zoro spots the swords instantly, his fingers twitching, aching to hold his swords again, to be complete. The other tributes are all gathered in a circle and when Zoro and Sanji joined them, Zoro noticed they were the only two dressed similarly. Fuck. Someone came and pinned their district number on the back of their shirts, and then a man stepped forward. He introduced himself as Jimbe, the head trainer. Jimbe as explained the stations Zoro's eyes wandered over the other tributes, and he noticed Sanji doing the same. Most of the guys and girls were smaller than him, but there were a few who matched or were bigger than him, but size didn't matter, skill did. The bigger muscular looking tributes were probably from the wealthier Districts, 1-4, they were called Marine Cadets, or just Cadets in the districts further from Impel Down. Training people for the games wasn't allowed, but they were always trained, ready to kill to win.

As soon as Jimbe finishes talking and dismisses them the Cadets are off to the stations with the deadliest weapons. Zoro snorts, show offs.

"Where too moss head?" Sanji asks, his hands in his pockets, looking around. Zoro looks around as well. The Cadets sending threatening looks at the others as they swung stupidly large bulky weapons, and the others fumbling with weapons and skills at other stations. "Knots? Good for trapping and shit."

"Lead the way" Sanji said, sounding bored. Zoro grunted and walked over to the station. The man, Hachi, shows them a series of simple knots, his hands flying so fast he looked like he had eight arms. After a while they get the hang of it and end up learning useful traps, then they move on to some kind of camouflage station. Sanji's delighted, perfectly disguising himself, matching the fake fauna at the station. Zoro, not so good.

"I decorated the desserts most of the time at the Baratie, and I organized the food for presentation when I wasn't cooking." Sanji says, "Lucky for you, you'll fit in perfectly, won't you moss ball?"

Zoro snarls at him deciding to watch the Cadets instead of answering. He watches their technique with the weapons, silently rating them.

"Come on moss man, not all of us have you're natural ability of blending in." Sanji continued. Zoro turns to glare at him, finally rising to the bait, "And not all of us know when to shut the fuck up, do we?"

Sanji flushed, and turned away. Over the next few days they moved from station to station, occasionally stopping to do some light and easy training of their own skill. Zoro's blood sings as he swings Wadō through the air, and he can see Sanji's easy grin as he practices light and simple kicks on dummies. Sometimes they even spar with each other, but stop a few minutes in before it gets serious, or when it starts attracting attention. They eat their breakfasts and dinners upstairs on their floor, but all the tributes eat lunch in a cafeteria off the gym. Grudgingly, Sanji and Zoro listen to Shanks and sit together, sometimes commenting on the other tributes, Sanji talks about the food, explaining what he would have done to it, or what district the food and recipes are from, and Zoro talks about how bad a few of the other tributes are at handling weapons, and how good some of them are.

The Admirals, whom Zoro had noticed on the first day, watched the tributes during the training, and then chatted with the trainers during the lunch break. Sanji noticed they kept their eyes fixated on them. When he pointed it out to Zoro, all he did was shrug, "Who cares"

The second day, as they're tossing spears, Sanji keeps looking behind them, "Oi mosshead." He finally says quietly, "We have a shadow."

Zoro casually looks behind him, seeing a kid watching them. The twelve year old from District 11, the one who reminded him of Chopper.

"Think his names Coby." Sanji said, glancing at the kid again. Zoro lowered the spear he was about to throw, He slowly turned, letting all his irritation spill into one look, "Do you think I care?"

"Sorry, just trying to make conversation." Sanji held his hands up in front of his chest, rolling his eyes. The kid followed them around, joining them at stations. Coby's good at hitting targets with a slingshot, it almost reminds him of Usopp, but what's a kid with a sling shot gonna do against a big guy with a mace?

On the third day, they're called for their sessions with the Admirals. It's in order by district number, boy then girl. Because there's two boys in from their district, they play rock paper scissors. Sanji goes first, having won the game.

"Try not to break your foot. Kick them to hell" Zoro says with a smirk. Sanji grins back at him. "Try to cut straight Marimo. Good luck"

Sanji heads into the room, ending their weird insult/encouragement trade. Then Zoro is left alone. He sits in silence, using the time alone for quick meditation. When his name is finally called he walks into the room, the Admirals not even looking up. Zoro grunted, they'd been sitting in the room all day, watching 23 other sessions, drinking booze, all they wanted was to leave, if he was in their place he would have the same reaction, but as a tribute, it pissed him the fuck off.

Zoro walks over to the rack of swords, feeling some eyes on him as he picks one up and slices experimentally, too light. Once he's finally found two other katana he likes, he walks over to the dummies.

"Oni giri!" The Admirals looked up in time to see the dummy fall to pieces, with the green haired man standing a few feet away, a swords in each hand and one in his mouth. Interesting. Zoro turned to dummy after dummy, delivering killing blows every time he swung his arms. After he had run out of dummies Zoro looked up at the Admirals, who weren't even looking at him. He had taken all of three minutes to destroy every dummy or target in the room, and they hadn't noticed. A small camera that seemed to be recording caught hid eye, so they might end up seeing it, but at the moment, they're more interested in the food and drinks being set on the table.

Zoro snarled, he was going to fight in their game, to entertain people, he was going to kill, and these people would be paid for it, they could at least show some fucking courtesy and watch. He growled, swinging his arms in tight circles, his blades sending off blasts of air, so fast and sharp it was as if he was throwing his swords. To finish it, he spun, slashing the air in front of him with Wadō. He dropped his arms, taking her from his mouth and waited. Bottles fell to the table cut perfectly in half, the fruits cut perfectly, and one man yelled in shock as his wine glass was suddenly cut in half. The giant carcass of meat on the table wasn't touched, but the fruit and vegetables around it lay in perfect slices. The Admirals looked from Zoro, who had returned the other two swords to the rack, to the perfectly cut items on their raised balcony, how? Zoro smirked cockily at their stares of disbelief, he took a bow, flourishing with Wadō, flicking his wrist down, cutting the pig perfectly in half, almost laughing at the shocked gasps.

"Thanks for your consideration" He purred darkly, nodding his head and strode toward the exit. He quickly gets into the elevator and hits 12. When he struts into the room everyone looks expectantly at him. He stares right back before going and getting a bottle of sake from the kitchen.

"How'd it go?" Sanji asked quietly. Zoro shrugged, "Either I just gained their respect, or marines will come in here and kill me. You?"

Sanji snorted, obviously not believing him, "I did well enough. Now get out of the kitchen, you're presence is ruining the food."

Zoro smirks and leaves, flopping onto the couch next to Shanks, who stared at him curiously. Zoro just smiled and closed his eyes, and waited. After the private sessions, there would be a televised rating of the skills of the tributes. 1 being the worst, and 12 being the best. 12 was never shown, the highest Zoro had ever seen was a 10. The score didn't guarantee a tribute would win, but it shows their promise. The higher scores usually brought in more sponsors too, so that was a plus. Zoro sighed, because of the stupidity of his act, he would probably get a low score, and no one would sponsor him. Whatever. He would survive.

"How'd it go?" Law asked, and Zoro opened his eyes, everyone one from their "team" was in the common room. Sanji perched himself on the arm of a chair and lit a cigarette, "They didn't seem to pay much attention, I just kicked some shit until they said I could leave, broke a metal pole accidentally."

Shanks nodded, then turned to Zoro, who sighed. "They were the same with me, so after I wrecked all the dummies and target shit, they were still focused on the fucking food, so I cut some other things up,"

"Other things? Like?" Shanks face held a bit of fear, and Zoro had to laugh, did he think he killed the Admirals? "Pretty much the same thing I showed you on the train, except every bottle, and all the food. Some of the glasses they held, and I didn't even touch the main course until they had gotten over the shock."

The room was silent, before Sanji's shriek broke through the silence, "YOU SLICED AT THEM?! THERE WERE LADIES UP THERE YOU SHIT HEAD!"

Zoro blocked the kick aimed for his head, trapping Sanji's leg, holding him still. Law and Shanks looked thoughtful, while Vivi just looked shocked.

"What did they say?" Law asked. Zoro shrugged, "Just gasped, I kinda walked out, dismissed myself and all that shit."

Ivankov looked like he was going to faint. Shanks pushed his red hair from his face, "Well you can't be punished, to do that they'll have to air the tapes… and your family will be fine, probably just try and make your time in the arena hellish… tell me, what did their faces look like?"

"We're going into a blood bath in that arena, how could it be more hellish?" Sanji muttered. Zoro smiled, "A few looked like they pissed themselves, one fainted, and one fell into the cooler, I heard him whining about beer on his suit when I was leaving."

Shanks laughed, "Well, serves them right, don't ignore District 12."

Zoro sighed. Suddenly the screen lights up, like its set to do when it's something to do with the games. They go through the tributes, showing a picture, then the score. The Cadets pull scores between 8 and 10. Sanji pulls a 9, which everyone is happy about. When Zoro's picture shows, he gets a sudden nervous flutter in his stomach. Then the number flashes. Eleven. A mother fucking eleven. The room is silent then erupts into cheers.

"How…?" Zoro looks at Shanks. The red haired man shrugged, "Maybe they liked your attitude, and most people don't attack them."

"I didn't attack them! Just their surroundings…" Zoro protests, his body jerking around from the slaps on the back and a clingy Perona on his arm. Eventually, the noise dies down, Sanji muttering something about a stupid Marimo, which started a small scuffle. After they get pulled apart, Sanji and Zoro congratulate each other, hardly even trying to sound sincere. They barely spare each other a glare as they head into their separate rooms. Tomorrow was preparation for a "big big big day!" as Ivankov was singing at them.

* * *

A/N: hoped you guys liked this! I'm a bit stressed with exams at the moment, so it might not be the greatest.


	5. Interviews

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I had a hard time trying to figure out who should be who, and it's awesome you guys think they fit! :)

If you see any words with two brackets ((like this)) that's just me making notes in the story so people don't get confused

* * *

Chapter 5:

Interviews

As he expected, Zoro was woken up by Ivankov singing at his door about a big big day tomorrow. The interview day. Each tribute would sit up with two interviewers for three minutes and try and get support. Zoro faintly wondered if it was the same two as last year, the freaky skeleton man that kept making jokes about being a skeleton, probably a Devil Fruit user, and the red headed woman who seemed like a total bitch. He couldn't remember their names, but whatever.

He left his room shirtless, and found a quiet common room. Everyone was spread out, doing their own thing. Zoro trudged to the table, grabbing a plate and filling it. As soon as he sat down, Shanks joined him, "Hi, change of plans."

"Which plans?" Zoro grumbled, shovelling food into his mouth. Shanks uncorked a bottle of rum, pouring half for Zoro, who took it with slight confusion, "Change in coaching plans, its separate now, I'm chatting with Sanji this morning, and Ivankov has you, then Sanji gets Ivankov this afternoon and you get me."

"Why?" Zoro asked, shovelling food into his mouth. The red haired man shrugged, "Sanji asked"

"Ok, whatever, what're we doing?" Zoro asked, yawning. He ran a hand through his bed styled hair, ruffling it up even more.

"Ivankov's gonna help make you likable, and help you act like a civilized human that doesn't want to kill everyone in the room, then I'll talk to you about what you'll talk about. Then tomorrow morning Perona will have her way with you," Shanks smiled when Zoro cringed at the sexual innuendo hidden in his words, "Then Law will make you pretty."

Ivankov spends four hours with Zoro, having him walk back and forth until he's happy with the teen's stride, then he makes him sit, fluttering around him, forcing his body into a stiff, straight backed, formal position. The okama forces him to practice a beaming smile, then has him wink and smile at himself in the mirror. He can hardly hold the smile for a second before scowling at his reflection, he looked fucking stupid.

"Make them feel like they're being flirted with candy-boy. Make them feel like you want them, then they'll want you. No demonic glares, we're showing the classy side of Roronoa Zoro tomorrow."

By lunch, Zoro's face was sore and he was wondering if he was going to be able to even attempt to smile at all during the interview.

When he sits down to be coached by Shanks, he is close to his breaking point. Just thinking of four more hours being bossed around, then half a day with Perona made him want to rip his hair out. Shanks doesn't speak, but sits and frowns at Zoro for the first few minutes.

"Advice? Or should I just copy you and frown during the interview?" Zoro snaps. Shanks sneers at him, "I'm trying to figure out what to do with you, and how we can show a side of you that isn't linked to the Demon of District 12. Funny? Nice? Charming? Dare I suggest sexy? You're the big brother who volunteered for his sobbing little brother, so we have some back ground for a hero story. And you've got the highest score from training. The result of this interview will determine how many sponsors you can get."

"What's the curly cook doing?" Zoro asks. Shanks snorts, "We're sticking with Saint Sanji, the people love it. But Demon Zoro is scary, and you're just hostile. No one likes you."

Zoro rolled his eyes, snorting. "Oh, I'm so hurt, people who want to watch me die don't like me. Well newsflash, I don't like them."

Shanks sighs, "I thought we had a chance, I'm starting to doubt myself… how about flirty? Cute? Be humble, big brother."

Over the next few hours they try mock interviews, and its obvious Zoro can't act for shit. Shanks ends up throwing his hands in the air and leaves. Zoro just flops on his bed and tries to practice smiling nicely, why not, it's worth a shot.

zzzzz

Zoro wakes up the next morning to find a body snuggled up close to his. He almost forgets where he is, thinking he's back home and its Chopper snuggling up close to him. He sleepily looks in the direction of the warmth and his greeted with huge black ringed eyes. He lets out a (very manly) scream and jerks away, falling off his bed. Perona peered over the edge, frowning at him, "Why'd you do that? You're cute when you're sleeping."

Zoro snarled at her, but she paid him no mind, pulling him up and pushing him into the bathroom, ordering him to shower. Barely giving him time to dress, she then dragged him down the hall, into the elevator then out of the building and into another one. In the same room he had been in to be prepared for the opening ceremonies, she spent most of the day cleaning him, then applying makeup. At first he had freaked out, but she pressed on anyway. It wasn't heavy makeup like hers, but light, accenting his facial features, hiding the bags under his eyes. She started finishing off, brushing gold powder over his body. She brushes and sooths his hair back, gelling it away from his face into a casual messy faux hawk.

Finally Law enters carrying a garment bag. "Close the eyes." Law orders, walking close. Zoro obeys and stands still, feeling Perona leave his personal space, only to be replaced with Law. He felt fabric being pulled over his skin, a soft smooth fabric that was probably expensive. Obviously nothing he had ever owned in his existence. He didn't even think he knew any expensive fabric names. He can feel Law tugging and limbs when he wants them lifted, shifting them when he needs them moved, and he complies. Then there's silence.

"Uh, can I open my eyes?" He asks uncertainly, He can hear a few footsteps, then Law says smugly, "Yes."

He opens his eyes and is shocked. His usually sharp features are light and warm, they even found a way to make his scowl look warm with the makeup. His hair looked neat, even though it hand only been pushed off his forehead. The shimmery gold dust was barely brushed on in some places and concentrated in others, like his cheekbones, accenting his features and bringing out small flecks of gold in his dark eyes he didn't even know existed. His whole body looked golden, he'd never really noticed his skin colour before, he'd always been covered with grime and dust that seemed to never come off, but since being at Impel Down, he could see what he guessed was the perfect golden tan of his skin. And his clothes. He was dressed in dark trousers, a light white shirt and a black sports jacket with gold detailing. It was the best quality of clothing he'd ever worn.

"Holy shit" he breathed, in awe. Before, he would have called himself decent, others had called him hot and whatever, but now, he could honestly call himself hot, he could even call himself godly. He turned to Law who had a large smile on his face, "Ready for the interview then Zoro-ya?"

Zoro snorted, "Ask Shanks, he'll tell you"

"Yeah, Shanks-ya seems to think you're hopeless, but how about you just be you? Be how you would around your friends"

Zoro glared at him, and Law sighed, "You're fine around me, so pretend you're talking to me, act funny, nice but cocky at the same time."

Zoro sighs, it's not the best, but honestly, he has no options left.

He leaves his room and is shepherded down the hall of prep rooms to go down to the stage in the arena where the interviews will be held, aired for everyone in the New World to see. They meet up with Sanji and his team, and Zoro breathes a sigh of relief, they aren't dressed like twins. Sanji has an actual suit on, with a tie. They aren't given a chance to speak as each district is herded into their own rooms, they'll watch the interviews on a screen. That way the audience only has to concentrate on one tribute at a time, and they won't get distracted by any of the others. They decide Zoro will go first since Sanji went first for the training sessions, and settle in to watch.

It's the same pair as last year conducting the interviews, the red headed bitch, Nami and the skeleton man Brook. They start off with some jokes and light chatter before calling up the first tribute, male, then female.

District 1: Daz Bones and Paula

District 2: Lucci and Kalifa

District 3: Galdino ((Mr. 3)) and Miss Goldenweek

District 4: Kaku and Baby 5

District 5: Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine

District 6: Buggy and Alvida

District 7: Hannybul and Sadi-chan

District 8: Caesar and Monet

District 9: Gecko Moria and Cindry

District 10: Don Kreig and Chocolat ((fake Nami))

District 11: Coby and Porsche

Zoro shook his head, some of the tributes had some of the weirdest names. He and Sanji had been summoned when District 11 had been called up on stage, so now they stood side stage, watching the teal haired girl. He watches Porsche walk off the stage and realizes he's up. Oh shit. Zoro takes a deep breath and walks out from the wings. The roar of the crowd is deafening as he strides up to Nami and Brook, shaking their held out hands, then sitting in the chair they gesture at.

"Yohohoho! Nice to finally meet the Demon of District 12, Roronoa Zoro!" Brook called out, "So what's impressed you so far?"

Zoro looked around the room, trying to think of anything, "The food?" He asks, then realizes he hasn't really eaten any of Impel Downs food, just Sanji's. Well shit, that could be counted as an indirect compliment.

"Easy on the tongue, eh? But I wouldn't know, I don't have a tongue! Yohohoho Skull Joke!" Brook shouted. Zoro almost sighed, this guy kind of reminded him of Luffy.

"So, Zoro" Nami purred, leaning forward, "You gave us quite a scare during the opening ceremonies, what did you think of your costume, demon?"

Zoro smiled, his grin feral, "I have to say, I liked it, a lot."

"The horns looked really real, same with the wings!" Nami grinned, flirting back, but her eyes told him just how much she hated this. He smirked again, telling her with his eyes he felt the same, "Who says they aren't? Maybe I just let you mortals see them for one night."

The crowd loved that, they screamed for his cocky bad boy attitude, he flashed them a grin and winked, sending them into flurries again. They hated him huh? No one liked Demon Zoro? The crowd was sure acting like they liked Demon Zoro. Shanks was wrong. Zoro almost grinned at the thought of rubbing it in the red haired man's face that he was _wrong_.

"So Zoro, is there actually a scar on your chest? Or is that fake?" Brook asked. Zoro leaned back in his chair, reclining comfortably, "Why, you wanna see it again?"

The screaming reached new levels as he stood and slowly unbuttoned his shirt, teasing the crowd with a sexiness he never knew he had. There were flashes as cameras went wild and screams as people pushed forward to get closer to them. After a few seconds he buttoned up his shirt and sat back down.

"Zoro, we've all been dying to know, are you single?" Nami asked, "Boyfriend? Girlfriend?"

"Single, but I'm open to either." He hoped he smiled charmingly and taking one out of the cook's book, he kissed Nami's hand, wanting to throw himself off the stage the whole time.

"There's even a chance for me, Zoro-kun?" Brook gasped dramatically, slightly mock swooning as he held out his hand. Zoro took it and kissed it as well. As weird as it was, it he preferred kissing the skeleton's hand to the red haired witch's.

"One last thing before we end this Zoro-kun, let's talk about your brother." Nami said, taking his hand in false sympathy, "His name was called and you volunteered for him, can you tell us about him?"

Zoro closed his eyes for a second, he probably looked like he was holding back tears, but he was really just trying to keep himself from jerking his hand away from the red heads grasp. He let himself think of Chopper and his mood instantly brightened. He reopened his eyes, and this time, his gentle smile wasn't faked, "His name is Chopper, he's twelve, he's going to be the best damn doctor there ever was, and I love him more than anything."

It was silent. Everyone stared at him, he could see adoration and sympathy in the eyes closest to him. Brook leaned in too, his voice soft, "What did he say to you? Before you left?"

"He told me to win, he told me to come back to him." The audience let out a collective sob-ish sigh at his words, somehow, he had them completely hooked. Who's hopeless now?

"And what did you say?" Nami asked. Zoro smiled again, "I promised I'd come back, and that would be the doctor that would patch me up when I did"

The crowd "Aw'd" as the buzzer went off, Nami and Brook stood, pulling Zoro with them, "We're out of time, give it up for Roronoa Zoro, the Demon of District 12!"

The applause follows him down the hall, past Sanji and into the room, where the team is. Shanks stood up, clapping him on the shoulder, "You did it, not sure how you did it, but you did it, for some reason, they love you."

"I liked the stripping bit, if you could redo that later…" Ivankov giggles. Everyone in the room shushes him, shuddering as they turn to watch Sanji's interview. Zoro barely pays attention at first, why should he care what this shitty cook has to say? He starts dozing off, but Ivankov kicks him. Hard. The okama leans over and tugs on his cheek, "pay attention candy-boy, or do you need more manner lessons with me?"

Zoro straightens up and stares at the screen, that was the last thing he needed. As he watches, Sanji is getting off his knees from where he was saying some poetic shit about women and why he put his name in. Whatever, boring, lame. Nami leans in close, and Zoro can tell Sanji is having a hard time not spastically dancing as her low cut dress dips even lower. The red headed girl pushes her hair behind her ear, "So Saint Sanji, is there a lucky lady who has you all to herself?"

Sanji sighs sadly, "No. There is no beautiful lady."

He looks like he wants to say more, Zoro's expecting a 'but you can fill that role!' followed by a giant nose bleed, but when Brook asks him what he's hiding, all Sanji does is blush and mumble, "It's not a girl."

The whole audience gasps. As accepting as the New World was about sexuality (they were so accepting homophobia was just a myth from a world even before the Grand line.) plot twists like this always surprised them. They guy had sacrificed himself for a woman, but was in love with a man. Sanji blushed again, "I mean, I love both, and he doesn't even know, and… we've only spoken a few times…"

It was obvious Sanji was getting flustered, Zoro would have laughed if he wasn't so surprised. The shit cook was gay? Or at least bi. Nami took the cooks hand, rubbing it with her own, "So he doesn't know?"

Sanji shook his head, "He's oblivious. Not only to me, but every other person who likes him too."

The crowd was sighing in sympathy, unrequited love, and unlikely match between an admired and one of the admirers. It was like a love story!

Brook pumped his fist in the air, "Win the game! Then he'll notice you!"

Sanji smiled brokenly, "That won't help. It will only make it worse…"

Nami smiled encouragingly at him, "How Sanji-kun? He can't turn you away if you're the victor, you can tell him it was the thought of him that kept you going."

The crowed let out squeals at the ridiculously cheesy line, loving the new romance drama unfolding before them. Somewhere in the crowd a writer was gleefully scribbling away in a notebook, his break had come!

Sanji sighs and bits his lip, pulling his hand away from Nami, covering his face with both, "No, if I win he dies. It won't work."

Nami and Brook looked at the blond in confusion. Nami reached a hand towards him, "Sanji-kun? Is someone threatening him, how could he die if you win, is he- oh."

As soon as Nami's sharp intake of breath left her lips, Brook, and seemingly everyone else caught on. District 12s room was silent, except for Ivankov's shocked gasp followed by sniffling. Zoro looked around confused, "What? Who is it?"

On screen, Brook put his hand on Sanji's shoulder, "That's horrible. My heart is breaking, if I had a heart-"

Nami cut him off before he could start his laugh, "We can't blame you, he's very attractive, he doesn't know?"

Sanji laughed mirthlessly, shaking his head. "No way, I doubt he's even figured it out now."

Zoro's picture flashes on the screen, behind the three, and all of them turn to stare at it. Realization slams into Zoro, knocking his head against the wall.

"What the f… what?" Zoro asks, looking at the people in the room. Everyone stared back, Shanks laughed, "Did you only just get that? Did it seriously take your picture flashing across the screen to realize it? Man, you are oblivious!"

Zoro snarls, but his attention is pulled back to the screen as the crowd cheers deafeningly while Brook and Nami hug Sanji, patting his back sympathetically. His face is still on the big screen behind them, smirking cockily at the audience. He sees Sani glance at it before leaving the stage. An action that is not lost on the interviewers or audience, some of whom sob loudly. Zoro shakes his head, no. This isn't real, it's some ploy. Some weird ploy to get Sanji sponsors. He planned it with Shanks.

Someone grabs his arm and tugs him out of the room. By the time he emerges from his thoughts, they're back at the housing building, and the elevator doors were opening on the 12th floor. He and Law are the only two in the small metal box. Zoro looks around questioningly, "Where…?"

Then the doors open to the District 12 and he sees where. In the common area, with Sanji. He snarls and stalks forward into the room. He walks right up to where Sanji is, grabs him by the collar and shoves him against the wall.

"What. The. Fuck." He growls in the blonds face. Sanji doesn't answer, only gasps in pain. He drops him on the floor, then spins to face the others, murderous intent on his face, "You all knew didn't you, what is this? Some fucked up plan? What are you trying to achieve?"

He's shaking with rage now, fingers itching for Wadō, but Law had taken her away before the interviews. Everyone was staring at him, in fear and shock. The only one who wasn't frozen in place was Shanks.

"Not a plan, not trying to achieve anything, I hadn't heard anything about it until he said it on stage I'm guessing he just said it, one of those spur of the moment things you two love so much. This totally helps your image though, everyone's gonna want you more, both of you. Star-crossed lovers, Saint Sanji and Zoro the Demon of District 12, complete opposites, madly in love. You guys are gold." Shanks grinned.

Zoro snarled and lunged at him, but found himself pinned to the floor by Law. Shanks strode over to him, pressing a foot to his chest, glaring at him, "Stop fucking around. He just helped you out, if you weren't ahead already, you definitely are now, and your sex appeal has raised too. His too, of course, I'd say you guys were the most popular tributes."

Zoro glowered, but gave up struggling. When they finally released him, he stormed to his room, ignoring the cook gently feeling around his bruised neck. He slammed and locked the door, throwing himself on the bed and closing his eyes. Meditation before sleep usually helped him when he was pissed off. Tomorrow, he would be thrown into an arena with 23 others. If Sanji was lucky, someone else would kill him before Zoro got him.

* * *

A/N: Did you guys like it? What did you think of the tributes? There's a post on my tumblr of the tributes and their pictures if you need any clarification. :)

** I'm not really feeling this fic. It's not even my original idea and I'm really just not liking it anymore, so don't expect anymore updates, sorry if you guys actually liked this, I'm just feeling crappy because of it.


	6. Start of the Games

A/N: Hi, so I know I said I wasn't going to complete this, but my friend turned out to be reading it and liked it (whaat?) and threatened to hold me at gun point, beat me up and tell my class about my blogs persuaded me to complete it. So I'll finish it. I hope you're happy asshole.

Anyway, thanks for the reviews, I know this is short, but I'll post a longer chapter in a few days. And I'll repost the pictures of the tributes on my blog. Thanks for reading :)

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Chapter 6

Start of the Games

The next morning, Zoro lays in his bed, staring at the ceiling. This was it. Today was the day he was going to start fighting for his life. He growls slightly, rolling over and flinging the blanket over his head. Any minute Perona is going to crash through the door and whine at him.

Sure enough, she barrels into the room and bosses around, getting him dressed in simple clothes before pushing him out of the door to where Law, Shanks and Ivankov are waiting.

"So, don't die. And as soon as the gong sounds, get the fuck away from the Cornucopia. I don't give a shit if it makes you look weak or whatever, I can work with weak, but I can't work with dead." Shanks glared at him, "Find water and stay alive. There's my million dollar advice. Follow it."

Ivankov just grabbed him in a rib breaking hug, smearing his makeup all over Zoro's shirt, "Good luck Candy-boy"

When they were finished their goodbyes, Law and Perona gestured for Zoro to follow them. They guide him up to the roof and into a small hover craft. A woman in a white coat approaches him, holding her hands up. Zoro eyes the large syringe in her hand suspiciously.

"It's just a tracker Zoro-ya, relax. And hold still, swords are useless in the game if you can't use them..." Law smirked. Zoro growled at him and his almost Robin like sentence. Robin… He missed them. He missed everyone from District 12. He let himself relax as he thought of Chopper, Franky, Robin, Luffy, Ace and Usopp… his family, his nakama. Where they getting ready to watch? What were they thinking? How were they doing? Where they ok? A sharp stab pulls him out of his downward spiral into depression. He opens his eyes and the woman is pulling the sharp tip of the syringe out of his arm, small metal tracking device in place. The woman leaves the room, and they're led to a room where food has been laid out on a table for them. Zoro eats as much as he can, but even Sanji's food would have tasted like coal on his tongue right now. They sit in silence, staring out the windows as they fly over buildings and then forests as they leave Impel Down. When they finally get close to the arena, the windows go black. Obviously he's not supposed to see anything. Zoro snorts, what good would it do him? When they land they're led out and down a tube that leads to the rooms underneath the launch area. The tributes each have their own rooms, and as Law leads Zoro down the hall to his, he can feel his breakfast threatening to crawl up his throat. When he gets to the room Law and Perona force him into the shower. Then one last time, Perona flits around him, prepping him. Zoro scowls, _gotta look good while I kill and die_.

When Perona steps back, he can see her lower lip trembling. Before he can react she throws herself at him, sobbing as she clings to his neck. He sits awkwardly on his chair until she lets go and walks toward the door sniffling and muttering something along the lines of "I could have made you so cute…"

As she gets to the door, she turns, and yells, "Die cute!" before storming out and down the hall. Law and Zoro sit in silence before Zoro turns to Law, "Is that even possible?"

Law shrugged, "If you're dressed as a teddy bear and get snuggled to death I guess that would be dying cute."

Zoro snorted out a laugh. Yeah, that would work. Then his clothes arrive. Once again, he'll be matching, but not just the cook this time, but every single fucking tribute. Dull light green pants, a black shirt that stretches over his torso and a black hooded jacket. The shoes are a soft wearable leather that fit perfectly to his feet. Zoro fidgets with the clothes, and then Law pulls it out. His pin.

"Where…?" Zoro asks, staring at the pin, feeling a pang of guilt, how could he forget about something his little brother gave him? Law pins it to his shirt under his jacket, over his heart again, "Found it on that outfit you wore, don't flash it around in there though, your sword is supposed to be your token, if you go in with two things we could get in a little bit of trouble. Now does everything fit?"

"Yeah." Zoro said, moving his arms and legs, walking around. He paced the room for a few minutes, rolling his shoulders and loosening his muscles, "Now what?"

"We wait." Law said, slumping down onto the couch in the room. Zoro falls next to him and crosses his arms, glaring at the wall across from him like it was at fault. They sit in silence, occasionally making comments about the food on the table. Zoro learns Law doesn't like bread, and he spends a good amount of time making fun of him until a cheery female voice announces it's almost launching time. They stand and walk over to the circular metal plate that will rise up into the arena.

"Want advice or anything?" Law asks. Zoro glares at him, but his stylist only laughs, "As Shanks would say, run, find water and stay alive."

Zoro shook his head and let a small chuckle escape his lips. Law smiles, then pats him on the shoulder, "If I could bet, I would bet on you."

Zoro quirked and eyebrow and lifted his face into a half smile, "Obviously."

Law laughed, and they both watched as the glass cylinder descended from the ceiling. Law steps back, "Good luck demon."

Zoro gives him one last smirk as he's raised up into darkness. When the brightness and fresh air hit him, he flinches and blinks rapidly. The wind blows the scent of pine into his face, a forest? That would be perfect.

When his eyes get used to the blinding light, he looks around. He and the other tributes are in a circle around the Cornucopia, the giant metal horn that holds all the supplies in the center. The tributes are required to stand on their circle for a minutes, step off before then and your legs get blown off. Zoro looks around, trying to find swords, or anything of use that he can grab and run. That way he could get useful shit and follow Shanks' "million dollar advice". He can see other things that would be immensely helpful, inside the Cornucopia. As much as he would love to jump right into the brawl, Shanks instructed him to run away as fast as he could. It didn't matter how much skill you had, in the first hour of the games, everyone has the same chance of dying. Zoro had growled at that, all he had to do was get more swords and he could wipe them all out. Shanks had laughed and pointed at the three scars across his eye, "This is what happens when you act like a cocky shit. I thought I could kick ass, but I almost died. Why? Because its chaos. I didn't know there was a guy behind me with a knife until the guy in front of me with a sword stabbed him. Then he got me."

Zoro had grumbled after that, but gave up the fight. He looked around the arena, surrounding them is a large flat area, trees lining the edges of the clearing on the left and back, a hill in front of him and a lake to his right. Forest it is.

Zoro lets his eyes travel back over the supplies, and then he sees them. Two katana, perfectly placed in the ground like an x. They were his. They were meant for him. He can run fast, he can make it. They're the only two katana in the pile. As he positions himself to aim for the blades, he sees Sanji. The idiot cook is looking at him and shaking his head at him, like he knows what he's thinking. Zoro snarls, and then the countdown begins.

20

Zoro snaps his head back to glare at the katana. They're meant for him, he has to get them.

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

Movement out of the corner of his eye catches his attention, Sanji. The blonde was shaking his head furiously, Zoro snarls at him.

2

1

And then the gong sounds

Go.


	7. The Wandering Swordsman

Chapter 7

The Wandering Swordsman

Usually, Zoro prided himself on his minimal reaction time. He'd honed his body to just react, and he almost always reacted within a second. So why did it take him longer this time? Was it because he was staring at the cook? Yes, it was all the cooks fault. The swordsman's feet shuffled awkwardly as he started running, scooping up things as he passed. Tarp like material, small bag of food. He reached for a bag at the same time another tribute did, the guy from 6, Buggy or something. The clown jerked at the bag and Zoro snarled at him, reaching for his sword. Suddenly Buggy's head disconnected from his body and Zoro jerked back with a yelp of surprise, then ducked as something came flying at him. Buggy's hands dropped the bag, and Zoro was expecting him to keel over when the guy's head reattached like nothing happened. Zoro groaned, a devil fruit user, he'd expected to meet them in the stupid game, but right off the bat? The clown guy turned around to advance on the person who had aimed at his head, the girl from 9, Cindry, who was throwing… were those… plates? Fuck. Zoro took the bag and started running for the trees. He can hear the whistle as the plates flew by his head, one imbedding itself in a tree. What the fuck was up with these people?

At the edge of the trees he stopped to look around, checking for anyone following him, and to check the battle ground. There was a few people dead on the ground, a few still fighting in the Cornucopia, and others taking off into the trees. He started running again, sighing to himself. There was no point in going back.

For the next few hours he alternated walking and jogging, checking the materials he had picked up. The food was still there, and the tarp stuff didn't have any holes. When he swung the bag to the front of his body to check its contents, he was pleased to see there were useful things inside. He didn't have time to stop and thoroughly examine his stuff, but he knew he was pretty prepared. He smirked as he swung the bag back around his body, then looked around the forest. No paths, no indication of where to go…

He sighed and continued walking, putting distance between him and the others. Not his first choice, but he said he would obey Shanks, and he was a man of his word. Swearing under his breath, he let the air of the forest sink down into his core as he breathed, enjoying the feeling of nature calming him after the suffocating modernized structures of Impel Down. That place almost felt like a prison. As he walked through the trees, he noted the footprints on the ground, paw prints, of all different animals. So there was game. Zoro crouched down slightly, stilling his movements and softening his breathing. His ears strained for anything, any indicator that there was an animal nearby.

After a few minutes of nothing he grumbled, no food for him. Food. Right. He smacked himself in the forehead as he pulled the backpack off his shoulders and started digging through, now he could spare a bit of time to look at everything. There was a sleeping bag thing, black and perfect for blending in, a bottle of something (medicine?), crackers and strips of beef, a box of matches, rope, sunglasses and a water canteen. When Zoro saw the canteen his throat lit on fire, reminding him he hadn't had anything to drink since, well, probably breakfast, and even then he hadn't really drank anything. He grabbed the canteen, tilting it upside down over his lips, but it was empty. He glared at it, would it really have been that hard for them to fill the stupid thing? Suddenly he was all the more aware of the heat and dryness of the air. Gritting his teeth, Zoro repacked everything, standing up. He'd just have to find water. He repacked the food without taking any out, it would have made his thirst worse, and he could live without food for a day, he did it all the time back in District 12.

He wandered around for a bit longer, before the cannons sounded. Each cannon represented a dead tribute, and usually sounded a minute or two after the death, but with the bloodbath at the beginning, they held off for a few hours to be able to actually count the deaths. He paused to count them, one, two, three, all the way up to eleven. Only thirteen tributes left in the games. He was disappointed he hadn't gotten to fight yet, but this cleared the play field a little. Now there would be mostly experienced fighters. He let the small smirk play around his lips as he continued walking. Now, who could have died? Zoro sighed and tapped on Wadō's hilt with his fingers, he almost wanted to know if the idiotic blonde was one of the people who died. Almost.

Eventually he noticed it was getting dark, he stopped and looked around, growling to himself. Where would he camp? Zoro might not have been the brightest guy ever, but he wasn't an idiot. Fall asleep in the open, and you're a sitting duck. He glanced around, not to mention the wild life. He wasn't weak, far from it, but wrestling with some predator that attacked him would just attract attention, not to mention this wasn't even an actual forest. It was just some arena, with the Admirals controlling everything. Zoro snarled at the air, after what he did, they'd probably send some genetically mutated thing after him while he slept. He wandered around, looking for a possible place to sleep while setting traps. He would need food, and he couldn't kill much while he was moving and trying to avoid groups. That had been a Shanks plan, don't fight groups of people. After he'd set a few snares he spotted a group of large willows and made his way over. At the base of the largest one he looked up, in the middle branches of the larges one, was something like a natural nest. Zoro grinned and started climbing. He tested the branches to see if they would hold his weight, then pulled out the sleeping bag and lays it over the branches. Zoro adjusted it before climbing in it, then tied himself to the branches with the rope once he was situated. Then, if he rolls, he won't fall out. Getting comfortable, he rolled his neck, and waited.

The last light of the day had just disappeared when the alarm and anthem for the World Government played. Zoro cracked an eye open to stare at the World Government seal. The 4 outer dots bonded by a line to the inner circle. The seal that's on every flag. It was just a hologram in the sky, projected from who knows where. It was time to see who died.

Zoro sat up slightly, watching as the sky faded out. If he was back home, they'd be showing the dead tributes last moments, but of course, the tributes don't get to see that, unfair advantage or some shit like that. All the tributes saw were the photos and district number. The sky flashed with light again and Zoro snapped back to attention. The little girl from 3, Goldenweek, the girl from 4, baby something or other, The chick from 5, the devil fruit clown guy and the black haired girl from 6, the weird guy with the head dress and the girl with the crazy mane of coppery orange hair from 7, the weird clownish guy from 8, psycho plate throwing chick and the guy from 9, and then the girl from 10 who slightly resembled Nami. Only slightly. With that the seal was back, and then the sky faded into darkness.

Zoro sighed and laid back down. So the cook was still alive. He ran his hand over his forehead, no, he is not relieved that Sanji is alive. No. He's only feeling this relief like feeling because he wanted to kill the shitty bastard himself. That's it. With a thud he let his head fall back onto the backpack. Who else was left? The guys and girls from 1, 2 and 11, the guys from 3, 4, 5, and 10, the girl from 8 and then he and Sanji. That's it. Thirteen left to play. He snorted before rolling over. This was gonna be one helluva game.

zzzzz

A snap and the sharp smell of smoke woke Zoro up. He scowled and sat up carefully to peer around blearily. Scrubbing his hands over his face, he tried to figure out how long he'd been sleeping. 4 hours? 2? He scratched at his chest as he looked around. It didn't feel all that long. He stifled a yawn just as a spark of fire caught his eye. Seriously? Shaking his head, he growled quietly in the direction of the fire starter, biting his tongue to stop from cursing the idiot out. Who the hell would light a fire in the middle of the games? It's like standing up and screaming "I'm here" at the top of your lungs. And there he was, strapped to a tree feet away from an idiot. He groaned and let himself fall back into his nest. Nothing he could do at the moment but sleep and hope no one went after the fire-starting idiot.

After an hour Zoro dozed off, but is shocked awake when a sharp terrified scream filled the air. With a jolt he sat up and his head jerked in the direction the fire had been. The sky was getting lighter, it was close to dawn, so he could faintly see figures standing near the body. A guy, he could tell by his scream. They were huddled around him, checking him for supplies. Zoro squinted, trying to make out details in the dim lighting. They had torches and flashlights, but he still couldn't tell who they were.

"He's dead, let's go." Zoro froze, the Cadets. That was the voice of the guy from 2, the one who had a bird on his shoulder. Slowly he leaned back, trying to get out of sight so he could think. Could he jump them? He'd probably win, but what if there was a devil fruit user? From his experience with Robin, Luffy and Ace, they weren't people you wanted to fight in groups. They start heading in his direction, but they couldn't know where he was, could they? He was pretty well concealed. The Cadets stopped a few feet away, and Zoro leaned slightly towards them, trying to pick up snippets of their conversation.

"-by now?" That was the girl from 1, what by now?

"Yeah, the can get at him perfectly now." The guy from 4.

"I haven't heard one yet." The guy from 2.

"What if he isn't dead?" Zoro's lips curled, the girl from 2's voice was almost as bad as Perona's, but hers was bitchy and condescending. Someone shouted in protest, probably the guy from 3, "I killed him! There's no way he's still alive"

"Well maybe someone should check, make sure he did a decent job" The girl from 2 sneered, what was her name? Kalifa? The argument continued until someone raised their voice above the rest, "For fucks sake, we're wasting time you shitty bastards, I'll go check."

Zoro almost smacked his head against the trunk of the tree. That was Sanji.

"Go ahead, Lover Boy." The boy from 3 purred mockingly. Sanji flipped him the finger before walking off. Zoro was frozen from the shock in his tree as Sanji walked over to the guy and nudged him with his foot before bending down and feeling for a pulse. He was covered in cuts and bruises, but he seemed to be moving alright. Zoro glared at the blond cook, of all the things to do in the games, he chose to align himself with the Cadets, the lapdogs of the World Government. The ones everyone the districts past 4 hate with a passion. Zoro touched Wadō's hilt. He couldn't wait to kill the bastard.

"Can we kill him yet Lucci?" Kalifa asked the guy from 2, "He's annoying, it's sexual harassment."

"We're keeping him." Lucci replied coolly, "He's pretty much harmless, and he's cooked us good food, it would be a waste to kill him so soon. Besides, we'll find the demon better if we have him."

Zoro blinked, they were trying to find him. Why?

"I bet he knows how the demon got the 11." The guy from 3 says, glancing over at Sanji. Zoro let out his breath, obviously Sanji hadn't told them about his Santoryu. Once again, why?

"You think the demon actually thinks the guy loves him?" The girl from 1 asks. The guy beside her, Daz Bones if he remembered correctly, smirked, "Or he loves him back. You saw him staring at Lover Boy before the games. He couldn't keep his eyes of him."

Zoro fought against the urge to smack himself in the face, were they serious? This guy thought he had feelings for the idiot cook? What the hell. He was half ready to jump out of the tree and kick all their asses when Sanji came back.

"Was he dead?" The guy from 4 asked. Sanji nodded and the guy from 3 started bragging and screaming 'I told you so' before the fire of the cannon drowns him out. The Cadets took off running and Zoro was left fuming in his tree. Sanji was with the Cadets. Sanji was helping the Cadets find him. Why?

Zoro wiggled out of his sleeping bag and started packing everything up. He needed to get out of there. He jumped down, landing as softly as possible, checking to see if anyone was around before moving. He checked his traps and found a rabbit in one. He gutted and cleaned it in seconds, then cooked it over the dead guy's still slightly burning fire. When he felt it was done, he grabbed his stuff and the spit and started walking. He ate it as he walked, and saves some for later. In the game you never know when you'll find food.

His lips cracked and his throat ached as he ate. Water. He needed to find water. As he walked he could almost feel the cameras on him. After he had seen Sanji's little alliance, everyone would want to know what he was thinking. He held back a sneer. He could care less what the shitty cook did.

As the day wore on he could feel his tongue starting to shrivel in his mouth. It was painful to swallow, he needed to find water. Zoro growled, he just needed to find the damn lake, or a creek, hell even a puddle, there wasn't even berries or plants in the area he could take leaves or fruit off of. He sighed and continued walking, trying to use his senses to find any water source.

zzzzz

"Sir?" A guy in a white shirt at a screen called over to the admiral in the room. Garp looked up from his conversation with the man that had been sent to into the room by President Blackbeard to "assist". But Garp knew it was because the President didn't want him to do anything that could be considered merciful, especially since one of his grandson's best friends was walking around in the arena.

"What?" He snapped, walking towards the man, Helmeppo. The blonde gulped as the Admiral and the other man's eyes fell on him. "This guy is almost at the border, he keeps turning back on his path though, it's almost like he's… lost."

"It's the green haired guy, isn't it?" Garp asked with a sigh. Lost? Sounded like Zoro. He felt the man next to him pique at the mention. Garp glanced at him to find him staring at the screen, a small smile on his lips, "Something amusing Mihawk?"

The hawk eyed man smirked, then turned to Helmeppo, "Try turning him around, get him away from the border, and maybe into a bit of trouble."

"Yes sir!" Helmeppo started typing rapidly on the keys of his station. Garp glanced suspiciously at Mihawk, who only had eyes for the screen, what was so interesting about Zoro to this guy?

zzzzz

Zoro sighed, it was dark. There was no point in going any further. He climbed into a tree and strapped himself in, not ever bothering with his sleeping bag. He was too tired, besides, withstanding the cold would train his body. His throat scratched uncomfortably, shouldn't Shanks be getting him sponsors now? Maybe he could send him one measly bottle of water. He'd followed his instructions, more or less. Did he really hate Zoro enough to let him die by dehydration? Even if he did hate Zoro that much, was he really going to let his district get humiliated like that? 'Demon of District 12, dies of dehydration' sounded like a pretty shitty headline. Maybe he was trying to send some kind of message. Zoro sighed and fell asleep as soon as he was comfortably leaning against the tree.

Once again the acrid smell of smoke woke him, burning his already horribly dry throat. This time, he would kill the idiot who lit it. But when he opened his eyes, he saw it wasn't just person with a campfire, the forest was on fire.

"Shit!" He ripped the rope off, scrambling to get his stuff organized. He jumped down from the tree, and started sprinting as soon as he hit the dirt.

The fire was spreading at a ridiculous rate, trees going up on flames at a laughable pace, it looked like some kind of trick or magic show. Obviously it was the Admirals doing. He gritted his teeth and ignored the rasping of his breath in his dry throat, digging his feet into the ground as he speed up. Tears dripped down his face as the smoke stung his eyes, and he barely saw the giant ball of fire aimed at him. He hit the ground, the ball of flames barely missing him. He jumped up and burst into a sprint in seconds. He skidded to stop to avoid a falling tree and turned to run alongside it. Shitty Admirals, going out of their way to target him. Zoro jumped over a small burning bush, catching his food on a branch. He stumbled and swore under his breath. The Marimo glared at the ground as he regained his footing and almost didn't see the second ball of flame until it was right there. He managed to jerk mostly out of the way, but he felt searing pain as it brushed along his leg. He fell to the ground and screamed in agony. Fucking shit. He clawed at his leg, and rolled to put the fire on his pants out. When it was finally out he pushed himself to his feet, grimacing at the pain, Zoro didn't have a huge medical background but he could tell he was burned badly. As soon as he was standing he started running again, slightly limping and wincing every time his pant leg brushed his burn. He tripped and tumbled down a hill, then stumbled to his feet at the bottom, gasping for air and grimacing in pain.

Zoro continued running until the fire attacks stopped and he could no longer hear the crackle of the flames. Coughing, he dropped to his knees and vomited, throwing up whatever he had in his stomach. Wiping his mouth, Zoro pushed himself unsteadily to his feet. He stood for a minute or two, a hand over his eyes. He was dehydrated, probably was messed up from the smoke, and had just had to run for his life. He needed water and food, or he wouldn't make it far. He started walking, wanting to get as far away from the fire as possible. Zoro's head spun as he walked, lightheaded from the smoke and adrenaline. He didn't notice he was in the water until he felt a cool splash against his burn. He sighed in relief and let his legs buckle as he dropped to his knees, shoving his face in the water to drink as much as he could. The blood and ash rinsed off of him and his clothes as he laid in the water, his thirst finally quenched. He filled his canteen and set it near his bag at the edge of the water, then looked at the burn. The flesh of his calf was deep red, irritated, and painful. If there was ever a time he needed Shanks to send him something, now would probably be it. He winced as he cleaned the skin and cut his pant leg further away from it so it didn't irritate it anymore.

He eventually left the little lake, going to lay beside it in a pile of rocks, hidden mostly from view. He ate some of his food and rested, sprawling out on the ground and breathing deeply. He had made it out of the fire, he was no longer seriously dehydrate. Zoro let out a quiet coughing laugh; except for his massive burn, he was fine, all he needed was sleep...

He had just barely closed his eyes when he heard a clatter of stones. Cautiously, Zoro peeked out from behind the giant rock he was sheltered by. Little by little he leaned out, craning his neck to see as far around the rock.

"There he is!" An excited voice yelled. Zoro groaned, great the Cadets, and he had leaned right into their view. He grabbed his stuff and took off, wondering if he could out run them with his leg.

* * *

A/n: so this chapter was boring/really bad. I had a lot of trouble writing it, and this was the best it was gonna get, so hopefully the chapters with improve later. And I'm also going to try to deviate away from the plot of the actual Hunger Games books/movies a bit, add in some One Piece like stuff and other stuff.

I also noticed I seemed to go between different tenses in the past chapter ('Zoro walks into the kitchen' and then next line 'Sanji danced in the kitchen') I really have no idea how that escaped me before, and I'll try to keep it in one tense.

Oh, and the chapter is called the wandering swordsman because all Zoro really does is wander around in this chapter. (My friend needs everything explained to her, so this is here)

Thanks for reading! :)


	8. Alliances

Chapter 8

Alliances 

Zoro thumped his head against the trunk of the tree he was currently stuck in, the cadets circling him like a pack of dogs that had treed a cat. He'd been lucky to get to the tree in time, barely missing being caught by them, and now he was stuck. Safe, but stuck.

"Get down!" The guy from three yelled. Kalifa sighed, "Mr. 3, do you really think he'll come down if you yell at him like that?"

"She's right you know, I'm pretty comfy up here anyway." Zoro yelled back down, grinning at the group. He had, in a moment of rare genius, cut the lowest branches off so they would have to jump to even try to reach a branch. He was safe, at the moment. He reclined stretching his back, "So, how are you guys?"

The group looked slightly confused, sending questioning looks at each other. Lucci, who seemed to be the leader yelled back up, "Well enough, you?"

"Bit too hot, but what can I do? Not like I can control the weather or anything." Zoro called, knowing the audiences was probably loving it. He hated knowing that, but it probably helped him. Shanks wanted him to be likable, and he needed Shanks to help him, as much as he hated to admit it.

"How about you come down sword boy? We can duke it out right here" Daz called up. Zoro shook his head, "I'd love you kick your asses, but I'm kind of tired right now."

"Let's join you up there then." The guy from 4 yelled, before shifting his stance. Zoro watched in interest, wondering if he was going to try to jump up. Then his body started shifting. Oh shit. His neck stretched and turned yellow with brown spots. Zoro groaned, fuck, a zoan type. A fucking giraffe. Zoro unsheathed Wadō watching as his neck grew. When it finally stopped he let out a sigh of relief, he fell too short by about a meter.

"Seriously Kaku?" The girl from 1, Paula giggled, "That's as far as you can get it up? Shall I assist you?"

Zoro sighed at the innuendo as she swayed over, her hips moving in a ridiculously over exaggerated way. She scaled the giraffe's back and started climbing his neck. Zoro rolled his eyes and shifted on the branch, stifling a moan when his burn was rubbed by a tattered piece of his pants.

"So, Mr. Demon, ever heard of the Toge Toge no Mi Devil Fruit?" Paula asked conversationally as she made her way up. Zoro gripped Wadō tighter, another fruit user? Shit, how many of them were there in the goddamn game. He glanced down at the group at the base of the tree, how many where standing below him?

"I didn't think so, basically, I can deform any part of my body into a spike at will. So would you like to play?" Paula purred, "Let's see if I can kill you."

"No" Zoro replied, flatly. Paula stood on Kaku's head now, and her arm sprouted spikes. She swung at Zoro, who lifted his feet to dodge it easily. She had a weapon, but no skill, and no way to reach him. He grinned evilly as he flicked his sword at her, sending her off balance as she jerked back to avoid the sharp blade. She screamed as she fell back, tumbling down the giraffe's neck. At the bottom, she landed on his back with a thump before slipping off and falling to the ground.

"You want to kill me?" Zoro called down, "You couldn't even kill my boredom."

Kaku regained his human form, and they huddled at the base of the tree, talking amongst themselves. Sanji stood apart from the group, staring up at the swordsman. Zoro stared back, glaring down at the idiot on the ground. His leg was starting to throb, but he gritted his teeth and tried to keep his face emotionless. Show no weakness. He shifted and let out a hiss of pain, a leaf had brushed against it. His burn was bad, and was a serious handicap in the games. He stared off into the tree next to him, trying to think of someway to cure it fast, some plant Chopper may have mentioned, and caught a glint. There in the tree next to him, was a little flash of pink. His heart jumped into his throat, his mind flying back to Chopper and his pink hat, but of course it wasn't Chopper, it was Coby. He stared at Coby, for some reason surprised the kid survived that long. He was shaking, but it couldn't be from the cold, it was a sweltering day. As Zoro stared at him, he realized Coby was scared. It reminded him of Usopp, the way his knees were shaking. The pink haired boy raised his trembling hand and pointed above Zoro's head. Zoro looked up, and a grin split his face. Interesting.

"Let the shithead stay up there. It's not like he's going anywhere. He'll just stay attached to the tree like the moss he is. We'll deal with him in the morning." Zoro growled as he looked down at the speaker. The shit cook had his back to him, lightly tapping his cigarette to get the extra ash off as he spoke to the cadets. Zoro growled, "If you don't shut up I'll come down and slit your throat in the middle of the night curly."

"Bring it Marimo." Sanji yelled back, turning to face the tree. Zoro flipped him the finger, then turned away from the group on the ground, and looked up again. Just above, slightly to the right was a Guntai Ari nest. He sat still, pondering what he should do, if he moved too much, he could very possibly die.

Guntai Ari were literally solider ants. Genetically mutated ants made in labs by Vegapunk, the World Government's insane scientist. They stood on two of their legs, using the other four to hold weapons they fashioned themselves. Zoro knew little about them, other than most of them were killed off because they reduced anything that moved to bones, even their handlers. Even just one could do serious damage to a person. Zoro looked at the nest, then back down at the ground. His face broke into a grin again. Perfect. He motioned for Coby to move away, and nodding slightly, the little boy moved. Zoro could hear his faint rustling as he jumped to another tree. Zoro looked back down, and found a pair of eyes staring up at him. They had someone watching him, great. He glared down at the guy on watch, giraffe boy, Kaku. The man had a square nose long enough to rival Usopp's, and that was saying something.

The sudden playing if the anthem startled him, and they all looked up the sky to see the deaths of the day. Zoro smiled and slowly stood on his branch, trying to avoid detection. He slowly and gently pulled himself higher, closer to the branch that held the nest. And then the sky went dark. Shit, that was right, no one had died today. He quickly dropped back onto his branch and started rummaging through his bag, hoping anyone who had heard a noise would look up and think it had just been him and his bag.

The cadets and Sanji were setting camp up around the base of the tree, once again someone had their eyes trained on him. With lack of anything better to do, Zoro let his eyes wander over their supplies, taking a quick inventory of what he would be able to grab and run if his plan worked. That was when he spotted them. He almost gasped in shock, no fucking way, the katana. Sanji was pulling them out of a bag and placing them off to the side. Once they were situated perfectly, Sanji glanced up to Zoro, and then turned and started digging through the bag before producing some kind of food. Zoro stared, it almost seemed like Sanji had pulled the katana out and placed them there for Zoro. He glanced at the swords longingly, the cadets had them, and the cadets were probably all fools who could barely handle a butter knife, let alone the perfect blade of a well-crafted katana. He eyed them a bit longer before deciding to try to sleep, he could get them when he killed them all.

When he went to lean back, a small silver pot caught his eye. What the…when had that gotten there? He grabbed it, and studied it, before his eyes widened in realization, a gift. Mentors sent their tributes gifts to help them using the money from the sponsors. Zoro quickly twisted the lid off, and tentatively touched the substance inside. The burns on his hand instantly stop throbbing. Zoro closed his eyes in relief, Shanks, maybe his little bit of acting had helped. He wasted no time in rubbing it on his burns, the instant relief almost pleasurable. By the time he was finished the Cadets were settled in and a few were drifting off to sleep. Zoro grinned, and settled in to wait.

Zoro woke up early in the morning, and when he checked his leg, he was thrilled to find his burn was almost completely healed, with just a bit of redness showing where it once was. He reapplied his ointment, gathered his things, and then climbed to the nest. He glanced down, the nest had a clear path to the ground, right to the bitch from district 1. Zoro grinned and unsheathed Wadō, then winced as his leg started burning. He leaned down and swatted at the burning feeling, on the leg that hadn't been burned. When he glanced down, he almost groaned at the sight of something small and black evading his hand and trying its damnedest to bite him, he'd been found by and ant. He leaned down and brushed off the ants that had found him, he was lucky it was still early and the ants seemed to be still lethargic. When he had finally gotten all the little shits off of him he felt prick where his shoulders met and his hand shot to his neck, pulling out a small groaned_, are you fucking serious? _On his shoulder was an ant with a blow dart. A fucking blow dart. He smacked the thing off then quickly sliced through the branch, wasting no more time. He watched it fall for a second before scrambling down to the lower branches, following the nest as fast as he could without falling. The nest hit the ground and exploded, the ants swarming over the still sleeping forms of the Cadets. Zoro smiled psychotically as the group on the ground started screaming as they were woken up by an attack of bugs that pretty much dissolved a person down to the bone. They screeched as they struggled to get up and away from the bugs, their minds still cloudy with sleep. A few of them, including Sanji took off, grabbing what they could before escaping the attack. Kalifa and Mr. 3 weren't so lucky. Mr.3 stumbled off, barely fighting off the ants, Zoro guessed he would probably die in a few minutes. Kalifa lay on the ground, her flesh and muscle rapidly disappearing. Bubbles lay around her, she had tried fighting them off with soap, and Zoro guessed it was another Devil Fruit. Zoro waited until all of the swarming insects seemed to be gone, then he jumped down. Gleefully he snatched the katana, attaching them to his belt. He felt whole again, the weight he was so used to weighing down his side had returned. He turned, stumbling as he did. His head was fuzzy, his limbs seemed heavy and unresponsive. He started walking, the foliage around him blurring and changing colours. Great, he was poisoned by an ant, he was hallucinating, because of a fucking ant. He stepped over Kalifa's skeletal remains, and then, somehow misjudging the distance between the ground and his foot, tripped. Hard. He laid there for a minute, trying to will his surrounding to stop spinning, and then he heard footsteps and struggled with his lead filled arms. _Get up._

He looked up at the first figure to emerged, his leg lifted. He stared for a minute, before lowering his leg. Zoro stared up at him in confusion, what was going through this guy's mind? His opponent, zoro, an opponent whom he hated, was lying in pain on the ground, but Sanji didn't kick him to death, he just stopped attacking.

"What the fuck are you doing? Get the fuck out of here!" Sanji hissed, his body starting to contort and twist, was that even Sanji? Zoro's drugged mind couldn't tell. The Sanji blob touched him, probably with his shoe, "Get up!"

Zoro stood and then was pushed, Sanji screaming at him, "Run!"

He took off, noticing the Cadets, or Cadet like shapes coming closer. He put on a burst of speed, crashing through the trees, his poison addled brain not caring he was making enough noise to attract a deaf person. After what seemed like an hour of running slow motion through the trees he tripped and fell into a ditch, and laid there. Not moving, only twitching as weird bugs and insects crawled over his body. He tried to push them away, but his hand passed through them. Hallucination. He laid still, letting the bugs cover his eyes, blackening out his world. His last conscious thought resounded sharply through his skull.

Sanji saved his life.

zzzzz

Zoro faded in and out of consciousness, his reality different each time. He watched Chopper die, poison by some kind of mushroom. Robin being impaled by an elephant with blades for tusks. Franky being hit by a train. Usopp being stabbed but that Nami chick and falling into the ocean. Luffy drowning. Ace lying on the ground with a hole punched through his chest. Law being shot by some guy with a boa. Sanji starving on a rock in the middle of the ocean. A girl who looked eerily familiar falling down a flight of stairs and dying. He silently screamed and cried out in pain as his mind played the scarring images.

When Zoro finally woke up for real, he found himself curled into the fetal position, covered by a large leaf, a small body leaning against his legs. He sat up, the small body squeaking and flying away. He slowly stretched, his whole body felt stiff, like had been in that position for weeks. How long had he been unconscious?

"Two days" a small wavering voice said. Zoro looked in the direction to find Coby sitting in the ditch with him. The boy twitched and cleared his throat, "You were unconscious for two days. I-I got the poison out, b-but you were hit with a lot of it. It's almost i-impossible that you're alive."

Zoro almost smiled, "You know medicine?" Coby shook his head, "Only a little bit. There are a lot of those ant things in the fields I used to work in. Dr. Vegapunk created them so the queen made poison, and t-they made blow darts and shot at us with them. S-so we f-figured out how to s-stop it."

Zoro chuckled, the similarities between Coby and Chopper were almost ridiculous. He leaned forward, stretching his arms, "You know, they aren't the only ones who can make alliances."

Coby's eyes almost popped out of his head, "W-what? Y-you want me t-to… Y-you want m-me as an a-ally?"

"Why not? You know a bit of important medical stuff, and you seem to hang around me anyway." Zoro grinned as the kid blushed. He stood, rolling the stiffness from his shoulders, "You hungry? I'll see if I can hunt anything."

The pink haired boy nodded, standing and following Zoro. They walked through the trees together, talking about their districts and what they do in them. Throughout the day Zoro found and killed two birds, and Coby identified plants that were edible. When the sky grew dark, Zoro started trying to find a tree for them.

"You've been sleeping in trees too?" Coby asked, watching as Zoro evaluated a large tree, then moved on. The green haired teen looked back at the kid, noticing his lack of supplies. "Yeah, do you have any blankets or anything?"

Coby shook his head. Zoro winced, the days may have been hot, but the nights were freezing, "You can share my sleeping bag if you want."

Coby beamed and nodded energetically at him. Smiling, Zoro motioned for him to get on his back next to the backpack. With the skinny pink haired boy clinging to his back, he scaled the tree, picking a thick fork in the tree and got them organized. He ended up reclining against the tree trunk, with Coby against his chest. Both of them in the sleeping bag tied to the branch. The skinny boy almost took up no room in the bag, Zoro idly wondered how long he had gone without eating.

"So who died while I was out?" Zoro asked, Coby tilted his head, thinking, "I think there's only ten of us left."

Zoro nodded, "Is the other guy from my district alive?" After Sanji had saved him, there was a chance the Cadets had killed him. If he had actually saved him and it wasn't just some weird hallucination.

"No, he's alive, but he isn't with the Cadets anymore." Coby said. Zoro nodded, then he probably did save him, why? He seemed to ask that question a lot when it came to the blonde.

"He saved me, from the Cadets. Possibly part of his 'I love Zoro' act, trying to keep himself liked and alive or whatever." Zoro snorted. Coby turned around and looked surprised, "You think he's acting? Pretending he loves you?"

Zoro laughed, "Course he is, he's a ladies man, and an asshole." Coby shook his head, "No, I'm pretty sure he loves you."

He looked freakishly like Luffy when he decided to actually be serious. It was usually at those times when he was right. Zoro stared at Coby, this wasn't Luffy, so he couldn't possibly be right, could he?

* * *

A/n: Guntai Ari are soilder ants from Movie 10/Strong World. I just found them on the One Piece wiki pages and thought they'd be awesome replacements.

I am seriously going to go off into my own plot line now, but I'll come back and loosely follow the plot of the actual storyline later, because I'm completely unoriginal like that.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for reading! :)


	9. Smoke Signals

Short Chapter, but it felt wrong not to end it where I did. So I'll be posting chapter 10 tonight too. Hope you guys like it, and thanks for the reviews! :)

* * *

Chapter 9

Smoke Signals

The sounding of the cannon jolted them awake. They laid in silence for a couple minutes, then Coby started to wiggle around, "I wonder who that was."

Zoro shrugged, "Dunno, we'll find out tonight." He leaned his back against the trunk and looked up at the sky that peeked through the branches, "Who's still here?"

Coby looked up thoughtfully, "We're alive, Sanji is, presumably, alive, both from 1, guy from 2, guy from 4, girl from 8, though she's more bird than girl, guy from 10 and then Porsche from my district."

"There's ten of us then, wait no, nine, someone just died." Zoro said. He looked up at the sky, wondering who was killed, and who did the killing, "Wonder how they were offed."

Coby stared at him with a mixture of horror and shock on his face, Zoro almost laughed, "What? It would be nice to see the other tributes tactics."

They packed their things and climbed out of the tree and started walking. They ate the remainders of yesterday's meals as breakfast as they walked.

"What should we do today? Hunt? Set traps to take out the others?" Zoro asked, glancing at the pink haired kid. Coby half nodded to the suggestions then looked at him questioningly, "W-what would you do if you were alone?"

"Gather supplies, hunt, and go kick some ass." Zoro said, letting his fingers play over this hilts of his newly acquired katana. Three. He was back, not only that, but these were the two he had picked up during his private session with the Admirals. There was no doubt in his mind, these were put out especially for him.

"Why do you carry three? Isn't one enough?" Coby asked curiously, his eyes travelling the length of the three swords. Zoro smiled and fondly stroked their saya's, "I practice Santoryu, three sword style. I carry one in each hand, and this white one, she goes in my mouth."

"She?" Coby asked, and Zoro could almost hear laughter in his voice. "Yes, she, this is Wadō Ichimonji. I have two others, her brothers, Sandai Kitetsu and Shuusui, but I had to leave them behind."

"So do those one have names?" Coby asked, gesturing to the swords, peering at them as if the names would be written somewhere on them. Zoro shrugged, "Dunno, they aren't legendary swords like my others, so I don't recognise them or anything."

"L-legendary?" Coby squeaked and looked at him in awe, "Your swords are legendary?!"

Zoro nodded and smiled. It was almost too easy to imagine Chopper was here with him, yelling "sugoi" at everything. They wandered around, gathering edible plants for hours. Coby pointed out plants that had medical properties and occasionally Zoro killed something for them to eat. After a few hours Coby stopped and pointed, his mouth gaping "Zoro!"

Zoro paused and followed the boys shaking finger, there rising in the sky, was a pillar of smoke. They stared at it, trying to figure out what it meant.

"It's either an idiot or a trap." Coby said, staring at it uneasily. Zoro smirked, "Probably an idiot. Mind if we go check it out? Maybe thin out the competitors a bit."

Coby shivered as Zoro smiled, "You look like a sadistic serial killer."

Zoro only grinned wider, leaning in close to Coby before whispering, "I am." He burst into laughter when the pink haired boy shrieked, it was so similar to Usopp it was scary.

"If you don't wanna come, you can stay here and I'll go check it out. Then I'll come back and get you." Zoro said. Coby giggled and when Zoro glared at him he quickly shut his mouth. "You'd get lost on your way back."

"Would not!" Zoro snarled, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared darkly at the surrounding forest. He did not get lost, things rearranged themselves. They decided Zoro would go and check it out, and Coby would stay and hide in the trees. Before Zoro left, Coby showed him a South bird, and taught him to imitate the call.

"The fire is north of here, to get back follow the direction the south birds head is pointing in, and when you get back, do the call so I know it's safe to come out." Coby explained. Zoro nodded, it was a good plan, "You're good at this Coby"

The little boy nodded, "I wanted to become a marine, but a good marine, so I've been studying." Zoro froze and his usually stoic heart ached._ Wanted. _Coby had given up, he knew he wasn't going home again, he knew he would never be a marine. Zoro nodded, his jaw tense as he waved goodbye and left without a word.

As he walked he found his mind preoccupied with thoughts of the kids and people who were forced into arenas, who knew they couldn't put up a fight and would never go home. Somehow his thoughts took a turn and his mind was filed with Sanji. What had been his dream? Did he give up? Did he actually save him? Guessing from what Coby said about him not being with the Cadets anymore, he did. So was the cannon fire from this morning signifying Sanji's death? Zoro felt a pang in his chest as the thought crossed his mind. He stopped walking, why was his chest hurting at the thought of the cook's death? He shook his head, it was a pang of regret, regret he didn't kill the idiot himself, he reassured himself. He sighed and looked up into the sky, he was still on track to the pillar of smoke.

When he reached the clearing where the fire was burning, he was surprised to find that there was no one. He looked around, examining the place for any trace of a person, a hint as to where someone could have been hiding. Then he saw the second pillar of smoke, and then the third. He groaned and almost face palmed, it was a ruse, probably a trap of some sort. He gripped his swords and turned to walk the way he came, but he was startled by a loud explosion. He watched in awe as a large cloud rose into the air and was followed by debris. Someone had just blown something up. He shook his head as he started walking back to Coby. There had to be someone idiotic enough to not only light fire but to blow things up too, if they were the same person. He walked along, occasionally looking up into the branches to look for south birds, not because he needed them to know where he was going dammit, he just… they were eye catching and it was hard not to spot them. That was it, he was not lost.

"ZORO!" The scream was distant, and in front of him. "ZORO!" He grit his teeth, it sounded like Chopper on the reaping day, but it wasn't Chopper, it was Coby. His heart fluttered nervously in his chest as he broke into a sprint, racing along the path he had made earlier. The idea that it could be a trap flitted through his mind, but he shoved it away, he'd learned to trust his instincts, and his instincts were screaming Coby was actually in trouble. He kicked into a higher gear, running faster than ever before.

"ZORO!" The scream was louder, Zoro took a deep lungful of air before yelling back, "I'm coming Coby, I'm coming!"

Hopefully whoever was hurting him heard Zoro too, the boy who'd gotten an eleven, the Demon of District 12 and decided to take off.

He shot through the trees into a small clearing, where Coby lay on the ground, tangled in a net, struggling to get free. In front of him stood the asshole from 10, Don something or other. Don held his arm out and Coby had just enough time to lock eyes with Zoro and whisper his name in fear before the guy shot a projectile into his chest.


	10. Goodbye Ally

Chapter 10

Goodbye Ally

Zoro roared with rage as he swung Wadō at the guy, slashing his throat in seconds. He whipped around, eyes searching for others who might have been lurking out of view. When he made sure the coast was clear he quickly cut Coby out of the restricting netting, pulling him free before gently lying him down on the thick grass. He pulled back and stared down at the boy's chest, he could see the end of the thing, it seemed to be a small stake. It was deeply imbedded in the center of his chest, and he couldn't do anything about it. Never in his life had Roronoa Zoro felt so powerless. He couldn't do anything to save his only ally. He cursed himself for not actually listening when Chopper had chattered on and on about injuries and how to treat them.

His mental berating came to an end when a small hand touched his own. He glanced down to see Coby looking up at him with eyes that shone with tears. He couldn't say anything, what could he have even said? You're going to be alright? They both knew he wasn't going to be alright. He turned his hand over and closed his fingers over Coby's hand, hoping he could help by letting him know he was there.

"You have to win." Coby wheezed, and Zoro winced at the sound of liquid bubbling in the back of his throat, "You have to beat everyone, you're Roronoa Zoro, the Demon of District 12."

"I'll win." Zoro said, clenching his teeth together. Coby gave him a wavering smile, "Your brother is lucky to have big brother like you, make sure you get back to him."

Zoro nodded, not trusting his voice. A cannon fired for the guy he had killed, and Coby gripped his hand tighter, "Please don't leave."

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." Zoro said soothingly, brushing the kid's hair away from his forehead. Coby sucked in a short shallow breath, "Talk to me? Tell me about your friends, and family? It's too quiet…"

Zoro nodded before closing his eyes, "You already know I have a brother, and he means the world to me, I also have an older sister, and her husband, my brother-in-law. They're the best family I could ever ask for."

He could hear Coby's breathing getting erratic, short gasps that came unevenly out of his mouth. Zoro took a deep breath before continuing, "I also have three best friends, one's an idiot, one's a coward and one's the narcoleptic brother of the idiot. But they're the best friends I could have ever asked for."

Coby's breaths were mixed with the liquid sound, each breath sounded like he was drowning.

"And then I guess there's my crew here, my stylist was cool, and my mentor was an ass, but I like him."

Coby's grip on his hand was loosening, he could almost feel the life slipping out of him. He opened his eyes and made eye contact with Coby. He was crying, they both were. Zoro's tears dripped off his face and mixed with Coby's.

"San..?" Coby asked quietly. Zoro shook his head, knowing Coby wanted something nice, not how he was planning on murdering the bastard. Zoro sighed, "Sanji is Sanji. He's an asshole, but he can be ok sometimes. I almost wish we could have met on better terms, outside the games. We probably could have been friends, or more as he seems to want."

"And then there's you, my ally, you're a good kid Coby. You would have made an excellent marine, you could have changed things. You're smart and you're brave." Coby smiled weakly, and with that, the breath left his body forever.

"Bye." Zoro muttered, rubbing as his eyes before letting Coby's hand go. He softly placed them over his chest, brushed the hair off his forehand and closed his eyes. If he didn't look below his shoulders, he looked like he was sleeping. Sighing, Zoro stood, taking Coby's bag along with the tribute from 10s. He looked back at Coby, lying peacefully in the grass, eyes closed, and he felt his throat clench again. It felt wrong to leave him without any sort of ritual type thing that was usually done to the dead. They did something back home every time someone died…

He dropped his things, and quickly walked into the forest. There, under a large tree, was a large cluster of wildflowers. He grabbed a handful and made his way back to Coby and laid them gently on his chest, covering the wound. He knelt there for a minute longer, before he remembered another ritual usually followed in the district.

He quickly stood, and for lack of a pen grabbed Wadō and slashed a shallow X into his left arm. He grabbed his things and walked to the edge of the clearing where he paused and lifted his arm. The blood from his self-inflicted injury didn't cover up the shape, if anything it made it more noticeable.

_It was a sign of friendship, and respect in the district. If you drew an x on the arm, it meant loyalty and was a sign of close friendship you only showed to your nakama. It was used rarely. Only to show support of someone. The last time he had seen it was a funeral. It meant thank you, respect, friendship, and goodbye to nakama or loved one._

"Bye Coby." Zoro said as he walked away, leaving the boy lying in the clearing, waiting to be picked up by a hover craft.

He walked the remainder of the day, no goal, except to get as far away from the clearing as possible. That continued into the next day. All he did was hunt, walk and then find a tree to sleep in for the night.

He was just lying back into his sleeping bag, grumbling lightly about the damned bird that had almost shit on him when the anthem played. He rolled his eyes and laid back, the seal would show, then it would be over, no one had died. That's why when the trumpets blared he sat up quickly, and his head jerked to look at the sky. Trumpets meant announcements, which meant something would happen, in the past years a feast, which was the perfect timing to take out competitors.

A loud voice booms over the forest, it seemed familiar, but strange at the same time. The voice congratulates the six survivors. Zoro frowned at that, mentally tallying up the total Coby had told him, wasn't there more? Who had died? He sat deep in thought, when a word shocked him out of his mind and back into the real world. Rule change. Wait, what?

"Both tributes from the same district will be declared winners if they are the last alive."

Zoro stared at the sky in shock. What? Two tributes, same district, win. Alive, last alive. Zoro's mouth dropped open as it hit him.

"Sanji?" He asked incredulously, then clapped a hand over his mouth. Shit, he did not mean to say that out loud. When the seal had disappeared from the sky, he laid back and thought things through. If he and Sanji were the last two living, they could both go home. Yes he hated the guy, but if he was still alive, and wasn't maimed, then Zoro would probably have an even better chance of living. If he ran into him, maybe they could work something out.

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Hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading! :)


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